FINNS AND CZECH'S BATTLE TO A DRAW

By Keith Borkowsky

REGINA – A deflected shot off Czech Republic forward Jan Maruna’s stick denied Finland its first win at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge Friday.

Maruna said he blindly deflected the shot past Finland goalie Tomi Karhunen.

“It was not really my goal,” Maruna said.

Finland forward Jesse Laaksonen took a Jaane Tavi pass and fired a shot past Czech goalie Marek Benda for the game’s first goal 4:39 into the second period.

Neither team scored in the opening 20 minutes. While the shots were a relatively even 9-8 in Finland’s favour, the best chances came from Czech sticks. Finland started to gain sustained pressure late in the period, cycling the puck and getting point shots off on the power play.

Benda came in to replace starting Czech goalie Tomas Vosvrda, who left the game 15:35 into the first period because of a broken skate blade.

Finland head coach Petri Mattila was pleased with his team’s efforts against the Czechs.

“Our defensive game was good today,” Mattila said. “We are not happy with the offence though. We needed to get more pressure on (the Czech) goal.”

The Czechs play Team Pacific in Saturday’s early matinee, 1 p.m. at the Brandt Centre, while Finland enjoys a bye. Finland hits the ice on Sunday against Team Atlantic at 7 p.m. in Moose Jaw.