Tero Lehterä’s confusing trick in the USA match: "Now you see when the coaching made a mistake"

MILANO. Finland’s head coach Tero Lehterä was in his usual chatty mood, even though the Women’s Lions had just lost to the United States with a crushing score in the Olympics.

Finland finally got to play their opening game of the Olympics after suffering from a stomach virus. The Women’s Lions lost harshly to the tournament’s biggest favorite, 0-5.

– There was no lack of effort, that wasn’t the issue. In fact, there was even too much of it in the first period. We were running a bit all over the place, Lehterä said.

– After two periods, we discussed that this is a long tournament and that we want to build on our performance moving forward. So, we need to focus on the things that unfortunately were too few in those two periods to create some repetition. The times they succeeded in the first and second periods created opportunities. That was more visible in the third period.

Lehterä pulled a surprising move at the end of the match when the score was already 0-5, as he suddenly took the goalie out during an offensive face-off.

– It’s not just the players who make mistakes. Now you see when the coaching made a mistake. We have our special situation plays, six-on-five, five-on-six, the plays and everything else. We noted after two periods when it was 4-0 that we probably don’t need us now, Lehterä said.

– However, I wanted to give the opportunity. It’s the same whether we lose 5-0 or 6-0, but at least we have a chance to practice here, since for some reason we haven’t had time to practice six-on-five and five-on-six, so we put it live right away.

– But those plays, they stayed in the locker room. Luckily, I know them well enough that it wasn’t terrible, but it would have been nice to show, “you go, you go there, you go there.” But the ladies executed it beautifully.

Finland had no chances against the United States in this match. The dream, however, still lives on.

– There’s no axe in the well. I know what that looked like, and it probably looked like a 40-minute washing machine program. But you have seen the men’s ice hockey team too. If we can just play smarter… We’re not the best of five, no, no. But one game, one game. But we need to improve a lot, both in defense and offense.

– Today, if there had been 100 face-offs – I don’t know how many there were – but 98 were lost. Those numbers need to be made more acceptable. Maybe we can’t get it to 50-50, but we need to get closer to 40-60.

Next, Finland faces the Czech Republic. The match will be played on Sunday at 22:10 Finnish time.

Jaakko Perttilä
X: @JaakkoPerttila