Antti Pennanen's superlative for the Lion's artist's super ability: "Exceptional"

TAMPERE. The Lions improved their efficiency from Thursday’s opening game of the Finland EHT tournament and secured a 4-2 victory against the Czech Republic on Saturday.

Head coach Antti Pennanen was pleased with the win, but one flaw followed the team from Thursday’s match.

– Today 40 minutes of good play, 3-0, we were clearly ahead. A bit of the same story as against Switzerland. Tomorrow the goal is to have a complete 60 minutes, Pennanen summarized in the corridors of the Nokia Arena after the match.

On Saturday, Leevi Tukiainen, 25, who opened his scoring account with a brilliant breakaway goal for the Lions, received even rare praise from the head coach.

– When you watch him in practice, his shot is truly exceptional. Very difficult to read, a kind of floorball shot, where you really don’t know which direction it’s going and what it’s going to do. You can’t read it at all. It’s a technically very nice shot. You don’t see that very often, Pennanen praised the sniper leading the league’s scoring race with 16 goals in a JYP jersey.

Also making the highlight reel were Santeri Hatakka and Otto Kivenmäki, who made their A national team debuts against the Czech Republic on Saturday.

– Very strong performance from Hatakka. It feels crazy to say he’s a newcomer, as he has already played in the NHL. Kivenmäki was very confident and solid with the puck. Made good tactical choices. A big and powerful skating forward.

Emil Larmi, who played his first game in goal for the Lions in the tournament, was named the best player of the match. However, Pennanen did not want to reveal yet which of the duo Larmi-Harri Säteri will be seen between the posts in Sunday’s match against Sweden.

– Let’s sleep on it first. There’s some idea, but we’ll see in the morning, Pennanen simply stated.

The Lions will face Sweden in the tournament’s final match starting at 5 PM on Sunday.