BOSTON — At 5:03 of Monday’s second period, Finland coach Antti Pennanen turned to his right and caught the eye of Juuse Saros. Pennanen signaled to his backup goalie to get in the net.
Pennanen, it appeared, had seen enough of Kevin Lankinen. Four goals allowed to Canada on 13 shots will do that to you in a go-or-go-home showdown.
As for the timing of the switch, Pennanen did not have a clear answer.
“Hard to say,” Pennanen answered after the 5-3 tournament-ending loss when asked why he pulled Lankinen for Saros. “Afterwards, it’s easy to say the reason for it. Juice was really good. But, yeah, hard to say afterwards.”
Finland, in retrospect, had started the wrong goalie.
Lankinen got no help from his teammates early. Roope Hintz’s defensive-zone giveaway in the first period — to Connor McDavid, of all players — triggered the breakdown that led to Canada’s first goal. Lankinen could not pick up McDavid’s release through three bodies: Nikolas Matinpalo, Hintz and Mark Stone.
Nathan MacKinnon made it a 2-0 game by receiving a chip from Sam Reinhart, darting inside the right faceoff dot and snapping the puck over Lankinen. Brayden Point gave Canada a 3-0 first-period lead after burying the rebound of a Travis Sanheim shot off the rush. The Finns were in no position to get into a speed game against the Canadians.
As for the fourth and final goal, Urho Vaakanainen coughed up the puck below the goal line, which gave Sidney Crosby options in the right corner. Every goalie starts shivering when Crosby has the puck in such situations. Lankinen, as he should have, dropped into reverse vertical-horizontal to take away the strong-side post. When Crosby executed a pass-out to MacKinnon inside the right dot, Lankinen tried to get over to his right. Not many goalies can do so against MacKinnon’s one-timer.
Three of the four goals, then, were no-chancers for Lankinen. He left a dangerous rebound out front for Point to bury. But that was after Sanheim jumped up in the rush. Lankinen had to make a reactionary stop on the Canadian defenseman. He could not steer the rebound out of danger.
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Lankinen, however, is short on pedigree. He signed a one-year, $875,000 contract with the Vancouver Canucks, primarily to serve as Thatcher Demko’s backup. Demko’s poor health has opened the door for the 29-year-old to make 34 appearances, three short of his career high.
Saros is more used to taking a star turn.
The 29-year-old is in his fourth season of being the Nashville Predators’ No. 1 goalie. In fact, Lankinen was Saros’ backup for the two previous seasons.
In 2025-26, Saros will be in the first season of an eight-year, $61.92 million contract. It is a fair bounty considering Saros’ multi-year history of game-saving play. He is a two-time All-Star. In 2022-23, Linus Ullmark won the Vezina Trophy. According to Clear Sight Analytics, Saros should have been the winner because of his league-high 37.86 goals saved above expectation.
Against Canada, Saros responded after his mid-stream arrival by stopping all 14 shots he saw. At 13:50 of the second, with his team down 4-0, Saros was out of his crease, square and composed for an 11-foot Grade-A Crosby opportunity. It was the kind of goal-saving stop Saros is capable of making and why Pennanen began the 4 Nations Face-Off with him as his starter.
It is no credit to Saros, then, that he forced his coach’s hand with a 6-1 tournament-opening loss to Team USA. Saros was leaky. Lankinen responded with an overtime win over Sweden.
It’s been that kind of season for Saros with Nashville. He has an .899 save percentage in 41 appearances. The Predators are out of the playoff picture.
But given the mismatch in star power between Finland and Canada, Saros could have been a difference-maker.
With Saros standing tall, the Finns scraped back late. Esa Lindell started the comeback at 13:19 of the third. Then with Saros off for a sixth attacker, Mikael Granlund pumped two pucks past Jordan Binnington to make it a 4-3 game.
In both six-on-five situations, the Finns rolled all forwards: Granlund, Hintz, Aleksander Barkov, Mikko Rantanen, Sebastian Aho and Patrik Laine. Finland’s blue line was its weakness. Its grinding and relentless forwards pulled them back within a goal.
“Everybody said you’re not going to win any games,” said Laine, who set up Granlund’s first goal. “Seen that even from the Finnish media who said that we’re not going to win any games. I think it was a tournament for us where we’re going to prove we can compete against anybody most times and show we can play against these guys. But at the end of the day, we were only able to win one game. We’re not in the finals. So who cares? But I think it’s a good stepping point to the Olympics to see where we’re at as a country and as individuals. Everybody needs to see what they need to work on.”
(Photo of Mark Stone celebrating a Canada goal against Kevin Lankinen: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
