A report from Finnish Hockey: The EuroHockey Junior Championship in Helsinki started with the victories of teams from Ukraine and Switzerland
The EuroHockey Junior Championships, men III started on Tuesday in Helsinki in rainy weather. The day ended in victories for Ukraine and Switzerland.
The opening game of the tournament was the Ukraine-Lithuania match, which ended with a 4-1 victory for the Ukrainians. There was no goal in the first quarter, but the real game started in the second quarter when the Ukrainians opened their account and scored three goals in a short time, the last one from a short corner. The scorers were Oleksii Popov, Vladyslav Tsybulia and Volodymyr Zhmereniuk.
After halftime, the Lithuanians woke up for the game and got their first goal bt Rafal Stankevic. Ukraine’s fourth goal came in the third quarter in a special situation from a short corner by Volodymyr Kostechko.
Towards the end of the match, players got tired and both teams received green cards. There were no more goals in the last quarter so the final score was 4-1 for the Ukrainians.
Switzerland was strong against Finland
Days second game was hometeam Finland against Switzerland. Switzerland started strongly and the first goal was seen right after seven minutes when Jens Flück finished a short corner with a goal. Switzerland’s second goal was seen five minutes later when Loris Grandchamp broke the pack of the Finnish defense and scored a 2-0.
Switzerland’s steady scoring pace continued throughout the game and into the second quarter, Switzerland’s score increased by three goals.
In the first half, Finland focused on defending, and the team hardly got any changes to get out of their own half of the field. In the third quarter, Switzerland continued their strong play. Switzerland’s sixth goal was seen immediately in the 31st minute and the seventh goal six minutes later. When Finland’s captain Mikael Sjelvgren received a green card at the end of the third half, Switzerland thanked and took an 8-0 lead.
Towards the end of the game, Finland got their game better together and have good fighting against a much better opponent. Except for the 9-0 goal seen at the beginning of the last quarter, Finland managed to keep the situation under control and even made a few nice breaks and attacks.
Loris Grandchamp, who scored three goals for Switzerland, was awarded as the best player on the Swiss team. Despite the final result, Finland´s most valuable player was goalkeeper Jobanvir Khaira, who defended Finland’s goal with many amazing saves.
Today’s fixtures:
27th July:
| Time | Teams | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 15:45 | SUI – UKR | Pool A |
| 18:00 | LTU – FIN | Pool A |
Games will be live-streamed on www.eurohockeytv.org
