Comment: Antti Pennanen's stubbornness has finally started to bear fruit

The Lions continued their winning streak in the World Championships by defeating Austria 5-1 on Sunday.

The match was entirely under the control of the Lions. In the first period, Austria managed to struggle for a long time in a 0-0 situation until Mikael Granlund scored a relieving goal for Finland on a power play with a sweet pass from Aleksander Barkov.

In the second period, the Lions stepped on the gas, and the tired Austrian team couldn’t keep up at all. Especially the line led by Aatu Räty was in form, and Jesse Puljujärvi racked up 1+1 in less than a minute.

Particularly the chemistry between Puljujärvi and Sakari Manninen was a beautiful sight. Head coach Antti Pennanen has stubbornly kept Manninen in the lineup, even though the veteran forward’s hands have been frozen. At the same time, Janne Kuokkanen would have been available to replace Manninen, who has performed very effectively, even though he has had quite limited ice time in the tournament.

Now the faith in Manninen was rewarded, as the goal clearly gave the much-needed energy to the artist’s game.

The third period of the Austria match was just cosmetic. Austria managed to score two goals. The first came when Lions goalie Justus Annunen had an adventure behind his own net that backfired, and the second was a result of poor defensive play in the final minutes of the match. Patrik Puistola, on the other hand, beautified the score by scoring Finland’s fifth from close range.

Now the unnecessary matches of the World Championships are done, and the next games are anything but cosmetic. Finland will face Switzerland on Tuesday evening, and then the winner of Group A will be determined.

As the games get tougher and the stakes rise, Manninen’s awakening and the formation of a new effective line around Räty could become even more valuable.