Antti Pennanen: this Finnish EHT team's player has a guaranteed ticket to the World Championships

The Lions are the winners of the Finland EHT tournament. In the last game on Sunday, Finland defeated Sweden 3-2 and marched from victory to victory in the tournament.

However, the start of the Sweden match was difficult. Head coach Antti Pennanen explained to the media after the game how Sweden got off to such a strong start.

– Sweden was really, really aggressive. They seemed to have halved the ice. It was challenging, but it turned around halfway through, Pennanen said, continuing to explain how the turnaround happened.

– The opponent can’t maintain that kind of pressure with such intensity all the time. When space opens up, we have enough skilled attacking players and good passing defensemen to start getting out of there. Then we scored a goal, which brought us mental strength and confidence.

According to Pennanen, the Sweden match was definitely the toughest of the tournament. But how has Sweden changed under Rikard Grönborg?

– There weren’t really many slow phases in the game. There were more of those last year. But as we noticed today, whether we can keep playing like that, it’s good to consider especially when we go into the tournament and have multiple games in a row, Pennanen articulated.

So is it already known how to play against this Sweden?

– They are a hell of a good team, with good players and a well-coached team, so it’s not that easy, but we’ll try, Pennanen chuckled.

For the tournament’s successes, Pennanen highlighted the goalkeepers, Henrik Bergström and Iiro Pakarinen. No player from the Finland EHT tournament has yet shown enough for the World Championships.

– We won’t give World Championship tickets to anyone other than that fourth one over there, if he is just fit, Pennanen said, referring to Finland’s captain Mikko Lehtonen.

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Lions | 08.11.2026 20:39