Two Florida Panthers Shine In Finland’s World Championship Elimination Games

After dominating in pool play, Finland’s excellent tournament continued into the elimination rounds. Sasha Barkov and Anton Lundell have looked excellent for the Finns. That’s especially great news for Florida fans as Barkov looks like he hasn’t missed a beat after rehabbing from his knee surgery. Against Czechia in the quarterfinals, Lundell scored a great goal late in the first period to put Finland up 2-0, and Barkov recorded an assist on the Helenius goal, extending the lead to 3-1. The rush chance allowed Anton to score on the rebounded Lenni Hameenaho shot. Barkov received a long pass from Granlund to create a 2-on-1 chance, where he then threaded a pass cross-ice to Helenius for the goal. In the faceoff dot, Barkov went 7-4 for a 63.64 FO% while Lundell went 6-5 for a 54.55 FO%. Sasha recorded one shot on goal while Anton had four. Aleksander led all forwards in ice time at 18:05; Lundell had 16:24 TOI.

One of Finland’s toughest matches of the tournament came against Canada in the semi-finals. Both Barkov and Lundell had a rough time in the faceoff dot. Sasha went 7-8 for a 46.67 FO%, and Anton went 4-8 for a 33.33 FO%; it was their worst game of the tournament in that aspect. However, Barkov did Barkov things, scoring a huge goal to tie the game and adding a secondary assist on the Konsta Helenius goal that gave Finland a 3-2 lead in the second period. Sasha was able to put home a chance off a back-handed pass from Granlund with a little bit of help from some net front chaos. Heading into the gold medal match, Barkov leads Team Finland with 11 points (3G, 8A) and has had at least one point in eight of nine games. His performance against Canada earned him the Finnish Best Player honor. Lundell had two SOG against in the match and has tallied 6 points (4G, 2A) for the tournament. Anton’s growth this season, from holding a bigger role on the Panthers, is starting to pay off now as he’ll add to his international resume. They’ll face off against host team Switzerland in the gold medal match.