Aatu Rädyn tip saved the Lions from a tight spot: "I told Juppe that..."

ZÜRICH. The Lions’ third center Aatu Räty was eagerly anticipating meeting his good friend Max Sasson in the match against the USA. The duo had practiced face-offs against each other over a thousand times this season with the Vancouver Canucks.

Which of the friends won today?

– Finland won. There were no face-offs against Max. Let’s continue to work on those in practice, Räty commented after the match.

Räty knew Sasson’s tricks well enough to give Finland’s goalie Justus Annunen a valuable tip.

– He is really good at getting breakaways. He got one again. I told Juppe that he would definitely shoot it into the pads, Räty says.

And indeed, Sasson got a breakaway while shorthanded and shot into the pads. Annunen handled the shorthanded breakaway without major difficulties.

– Max is really good at that, but it’s a bit tricky when the goalie knows to go down, Räty smiles.

Räty scored one goal in the match but was not satisfied with his own and his line’s performance.

– It wasn’t my best game today, or maybe not the best from the line either. Fortunately, others played really well. We did give away quite a few chances to the opponent and were a bit chaotic. We need to improve, Räty analyzes.

Räty doesn’t make a big deal out of his scored goal.

– Maybe one out of fifty or a hundred of those kinds of shots goes in. You can’t evaluate these games based on that. If it hadn’t gone in, it would have been the same kind of game for me. It wasn’t a good enough game from me.

Räty was involved in many plays during the match. In the first period, the USA’s defender Connor Clifton tried to deliver a heavy hit to Räty in the neutral zone, but Clifton ended up in his own penalty box when Räty slipped away.

– Clifton tried a hard hit. Luckily, I was ready, Räty laughs.

– Yes, they play hard and you have to be alert so that you don’t get injured or the opponent gains momentum from hard hits.