Lions reach to final in Ice Hockey WC beating Canada

Finland reached to the final at the 2026 Ice Hockey World Championship beating Canada in the semi-final by 4 goals to 2 at Swiss Life Arena in Zurich, Switzerland late Saturday night.

Patrik Puistola, skipper Aleksander Barkov, Konsta Helenius and Aatu Raty scored one goal each to take Finland to the gold medal match against Switzerland scheduled to be held on Sunday night.

Robert Thomas and Dylan Holloway scored the for Canada, who will play for bronze against Norway on Sunday afternoon.

Although an early score by Puistola at the 4^th minute took lead for Finland, Thomas levelled the score within a span of less than five minutes while Holloway took lead for Canada at the 15^th minute resulting end of the first period 2-1.

Another early goal by Barkov at the first minute of second period equalized the score together with two more unanswered goals by Helenius and Raty in the same period, completely dominated by the Finns over the Canadians to ensure the victory.

Helenius scored at 32^nd minute to take (3-2) lead for Finland while Raty scored at the following minute and widened the gap

In the third period the Canadians tried to come back but strong resistance by goaltender Justus Annunen and defenders foiled all the moves resulting goalless ending of the period.

Earlier on Thursday, Finland beat Czech Republic by 4 goals to 1 in the quarter-final.

In the group matches Finland beat Germany by 3-1, Hungary by 4-1, USA by 6-2, Latvia by 7-1, Great Britain by 4-0 and Austria by 5-2 while lost to host Switzerland by 2-4.