The Young Lions slaughtered Latvia - NHL super prospect in the limelight

The Young Lions provided a shock treatment in their second group stage match of the U20 World Championships by defeating Latvia, who had scraped a point from their opening game against Canada, with a crushing score of 8-0.

Finland, entering the game as a clear favorite, took an early lead of 3-0 in the first period. Emil Hemming (2+0) scored the first goal of the evening at 4:11. Jasper Kuhta (1+1) and Max Westergård (1+1) added to the score, making it 3-0 by the end of the first period.

In the second period, Hemming extended the Young Lions’ lead to 4-0 with his second goal of the evening just 1 minute and 37 seconds into the period. Joona Saarelainen (1+1) capitalized on a prolonged offensive sequence and scored to take Finland to a 5-0 lead at the intermission.

Finland continued to humiliate a Latvia team that had completely lost its will to play in the final period. First, Roope Vesterinen scored the sixth goal for the Finns, followed by Heikki Ruohonen (1+2), who skillfully netted the 7-0 lead from Aatos Koivu’s setup (video at the end of the article). Lasse Boelius added to the tally, making it 8-0 midway through the period. Defenseman Niklas Nykyri collected three assists in the match.

The shot statistics encapsulated the match well. Finland fired 41 shots on Latvia’s goal. Petteri Rimpinen was called into action in Finland’s goal only seven times.

The Young Lions continue their group stage campaign immediately on Monday evening at 22:30 Finnish time, when they face the Czech Republic in their first real test.