The second day of games at the World Juniors Summer Showcase (WJSS) saw a repeat of the first day, but the teams were flipped. On Monday afternoon, July 28, the first game of the day was USA Blue against Finland; USA White had taken on Finland the day before and won 5-2. The goaltending for USA Blue was Kam Hendrickson to start, but midway through the game, Jack Parsons took over, and Patrik Kerkola stayed in the whole game for Finland.Â
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Finland took an early lead on a power play, but the United States found a way to climb back in and tie the game in the second period. The third period saw two goals right away, and then it calmed down for a bit until later in the period when Finland took the lead for the third time. Finland held on for the final minutes and took the 3-2 win over USA Blue.
Game Recap
Aatos Koivu, the son of Saku Koivu, got Finland on the board first with a power-play goal just a few minutes into the start of the game. Leo Tuuva and Aron Kiviharju assisted him in putting their team up 1-0. That was the only goal of the period, but there were plenty of penalties in the first 20 minutes as USA Blue took three and Finland took one.Â
The second period saw momentum swing in the direction of the United States, and it only took a few minutes into the period. Cole McKinney scored the goal and was assisted by Henry Brzutewicz and Aidan Park to tie the game 1-1. The rest of the period went by scoreless as well, and just one penalty taken by Koivu for Finland, his second of the game.
The third period saw a goal by each team in the first five minutes. The first goal was scored by Finland’s Roope Vesterinen, who gave his team the lead for the second time. Heikki Ruohonen recorded the lone assist. USA Blue answered back on the power play less than a minute later with a goal by Kamil Bednarik. Luke Osburn tallied the lone assist to tie the game up 2-2 with over 14 minutes left in regulation.
Koivu responded nearly eight minutes later with his second power-play goal of the game to put his team up 3-2. Kiviharju and Tuuva each recorded their second assists of the game on that goal. That turned out to be the winner as Finland took the 3-2 win over USA Blue. Both of these teams will be off tomorrow, Tuesday, July 29, and will resume play on Wednesday, July 30 but USA will be one team instead of split into two.
