The Lions opened the World Championship with a victory - the dominance is thrilling to watch

Finland started the World Championship with a victory. Germany was defeated in the opener with a score of 3-1.

The Lions struck the first note of the match when less than half of the first period had been played. The power play immediately bore fruit, although Jussi Jokinen and Mikko Lehtonen had some reservations in MTV’s studio about Finland’s top power play unit.

Teuvo Teräväinen, Anton Lundell, and Aleksander Barkov created a couple of scoring opportunities, and eventually, Lundell hammered in Teräväinen’s pass to make it 1-0.

No more goals were seen in the first period – nor in the second. The second period was primarily marked by the Lions’ penalty troubles. Finland spent a total of eight minutes in the penalty box during the second period.

Even during and between special situations, the Lions created the best chances. Nikolas Matinpalo and Barkov were each on breakaways, and in addition, Germany’s Moritz Seider saved a goal once by diving and swatting the puck away from the goal line.

At the start of the third period, Finland finally got a long power play and once again scored. Teräväinen delivered a hard pass from the left to the front of the goal. Barkov lifted the defender’s stick and cleverly let the puck go between his legs to the back post. In the end, Jesse Puljujärvi was able to strike freely to make it 2-0.

Just when it seemed like the Lions would run away with it, Germany narrowed the gap with a goal from Stefan Loibl.

It was not far off that the Lions’ top power play unit would have scored a third goal, but not this time. Instead, Finland succeeded at even strength when Saku Mäenalanen fought for the puck to Aatu Räty, who fired in the final score of 3-1.