OT: Floorball WC Final GDT: Finland - Sweden || 8.30am CST/4.30pm EET || Youtube LIVE

[Puhis]

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time for the biennial floorball World Championships! In tonight's final game, it will be two very familiar countries competing against each other once again.

So, it has come to this. Finland. Sweden. Two countries with a long history and who will provide a good match-up against each other in ANY sport. It's a heated rivalry in floorball, as the countries have faced each other 6 times in the finals, starting with the very first floorball World Championship in 1996, which ended in a Swedish 5-0 victory on their home turf. In fact, Sweden was the undefeated king of the tournament for a very long time, including the 2006 games when they dealt Finland a heartbreaking, 7-6 overtime loss in the finals. However, come 2008 and the Finnish squad was playing with a bit between its teeth. It was a hard-fought struggle, it was full of surprises, pretty goals and gritty plays, and once again it went to overtime, but this time it was Finland dealing Sweden their first loss... 7-6, once again. It was an emotional victory to Finland, who had tried to beat Sweden for the last 10 years in vain. The momentum carried over to the home games in 2010, where the Finns were able to deal with the Swedish threat more comfortably, winning 6-2 and their second World Championship on the row.

Will the Finnish squad prove to be unbeatable and handle the Swedes their third loss in the row, or is it time for Sweden's revenge?

Sweden will be looking at their first real challenge in the tournament, after getting a "free pass" to the finals by beating Slovakia in the quarter-finals 18-1 and then demolishing the hopes of Germany, who played a very good tournament but were no match to the Scandinavians and ended up 0-13 in the semi-finals.

Finland, on the the other hand, has already played two tough games. First, they were already pitted against #4 seed Czech Republic in the quarter-finals, but the Bohemian rhapsody ended up 4-1 for the Finns. However, in the semi-finals, Finland were facing a tough challenge: Switzerland. Playing a really good tournament and in front of their home crowd, there was nothing cheesy about the Swiss squad as they were ready to face the defending world champions. It was a hard-fought struggle, but it ended in the overtime when Finland's MVP Juha Kivilehto was able to defeat Switzerland's MVP, Daniel Streit and thus lead Finland to the finals.



Watch it LIVE:




Yle Areena (Finnish)


Line-ups incoming.

[Puhis]

Here are tonight's opening line-ups:

FINLAND

Goaltenders:

#30 Eero KOSONEN
#31 Henri TOIVONIEMI



Defensemen:

#8 Juha KIVILEHTO
#15 Esa JUSSILA
#19 Oliver WARDI
#21 Tatu VÄÄNÄNEN
#25 Mika SAVOLAINEN



Forwards:

#7 Harri FORSTEN
#9 Sami KOSKI
#11 Mika MOILANEN
#16 Oscar HÄNNINEN
#17 Mikko KOHONEN
#18 Lauri KAPANEN
#22 Jani KUKKOLA
#23 Mikael JÄRVI
#24 Kari KOSKELAINEN
#29 Mika KOHONEN
#40 Lassi VÄNTTINEN
#42 Henri JOHANSSON
#50 Tero TIITU


Leading scorers:

#   Player               G   A   P

18 Lauri KAPANEN    11  1   12   
 9  Sami KOSKI         7  4   11
 7  Harri FORSTEN     3  7   10

Players to watch:

#8 Juha Kivilehto. Scored the game-winner against Switzerland. A defender who plays with a competitive edge and a big heart. Not afraid to get physical.
#50 Tero Tiitu. Has one of the most lethal shots in the world, and is not afraid to use it. Great scorer with good hands. He's a constant threat on the floor.

[Puhis]

SWEDEN

Goaltenders:

#1 Patrik ÅMAN
#80 Viktor KLINTSTEN



Defensemen:

#4 Anton KARLSSON
#6 Mattias WALLGREN
#11 Martin ÖSTHOLM
#13 Mattias SAMUELSSON
#14 Henrik QUIST
#21 Jesper BERGGREN
#97 Robin NILSBERTH



Forwards:

#2 Johan SAMUELSSON
#3 Johannes LARSSON
#5 Joel KANEBJÖRK
#7 Kim NILSSON
#10 Rikard ERIKSSON
#12 Henrik STENBERG
#16 Karl-Johan NILSSON
#17 Rasmus ENSTRÖM
#20 Linus NORDGREN
#66 Rasmus SUNDSTEDT
#89 Patrik MAMSTRÖM

Leading scorers:
#   Player                    G   A   P

17  Rasmus ENSTRÖM   14   6   20
 7  Kim NILSSON          11   7   18
12  Henrik STENBERG     9   8   17

Players to watch:

#17 Rasmus Enström. He's scored 14 goals and he's the leading goal scorer in the tournament. While his numbers have been helped by Sweden's typical luck in getting easy opponents, he is still a force to be reckoned.
#11 Martin Östholm. Leading scorer among the Swedish D, he has a boomer of a shot and is not afraid to join the attack.

These would've all been in the opening post but I went over the image limit, so I had to split them. Sorry about that.

[Puhis]

Time for the opening face-off. Finland starts with Toivoniemi on net, as expected.

[Puhis]

Kim Nilsson scores after 0:58 in the 1st.

Finland 0-1 Sweden.

[TZM]

Wow.. What a beauty by Team Sweden.

[Puhis]

Dangerous rebound for Finland but hits the post.

[Puhis]

Stenberg hits the net but NO GOAL as it was after the whistle.

[Puhis]

Toivoniemi saves the bacon.

[Puhis]

Tiitu gets pushed against the boards and bizarrely, the referee decides it was his fault.

[Puhis]

Kohonen has an excellent opportunity and a half-breakaway but couldn't finish it and ends up on the Swedish net himself.

[rafterman]

Look what the absence of the NHL has done to me - watching Floorball on YouTube while having Man U v. Man City on the big screen. What have I become ??

Other than the 1990's NBA arena music, this floorball isn't too bad.

[Puhis]

Esa Jussila with an excellent opportunity but denied by Åman.

[Puhis]

By the way, Tero Tiitu has 99 goals on Finnish NT and is looking for his 100th tonight.

[Puhis]

Originally Posted by rafterman

Look what the absence of the NHL has done to me - watching Floorball on YouTube while having Man U v. Man City on the big screen. What have I become ??

Other than the 1990's NBA arena music, this floorball isn't too bad.

Ouch, soccer. Switch floorball to big screen

Some basic rules:

-No offside
-No icing
-No hitting
- 3x20 minute periods with a small "power break" around halfway each period
- Line changes not allowed if the opposition has the ball on your side of the rink.

[Puhis]

Malmström shoots from nearly half-rink but it was a hard shot and he scores.

0-2.

Nothing's over yet though. Finland was 2 goals down in the 3rd yesterday, remember?

[Puhis]

Samuelsson hits the post twice in 20 seconds.

[Puhis]

Malmström scores again with Toivoniemi down.

0-3. We need some better movement.

[rafterman]

Originally Posted by Maxwell Goldshadow

- Line changes not allowed if the opposition has the ball on your side of the rink.

I like the idea of this rule, but at least in this game it doesn't seem that there's enough prolonged offensive possession to make it matter.

[rafterman]

3-0, so when does Sweden start trapping ?

[Puhis]

1st over.

Finland 0-3 Sweden

Basic summary of the 1st: Finland has the ball most of the time, but can't get any good opportunities. Sweden scores from counter-attacks.

Finland needs to bring their D forward more. Also, their strategy of stationary, accurate passes from D to wing and back to D doesn't really seem to work. It didn't work yesterday and it doesn't work today. We can't get the pass to the slot and have to shoot from D where the shot is always blocked or misses.

[WiFi75]

This may get ugly. Swedes are good but Finland must play better than that.

[WiFi75]

Originally Posted by rafterman

Look what the absence of the NHL has done to me - watching Floorball on YouTube while having Man U v. Man City on the big screen. What have I become ??

Welcome aboard

[Puhis]

2nd starting soon.

[Puhis]

Nilsberth scores, again from really far.

0-4.

These shots really need to be blocked.