In the opening match, the US top teams host Finland

Talk about ruining the party. Drew O’Connor scored the winning goal in the third period, when the USA surprised their host Finland 4-1 in a tough opening match in Tampere. Co-captain Alex Tuch also stepped up with two goals for the Americans.

“We stuck to our game plan and worked really hard,” Tuch said. “We have a lot of young guys who are not known, but they bring a lot of skill and I think they will turn heads in this tournament. I think we frustrated Finland. a little bit.”

Final result 38-24, coach Jukka Jalonen’s defending champion did not succeed on Friday at Nokia Areena in front of 12,056 spectators. Finland still has big twists and turns at both ends.

“We just have to reset right away,” said Finland’s assistant captain Mikko Rantanen. “Try to learn from the mistakes and try to find our feet. We were a little sleepy and didn’t skate the way the USA skated.”

Finland made history last year by winning the first Olympic gold in Beijing, China and then winning the World Cup on home ice in Tampere. The only previous country to win Olympic gold and World Cup gold in the same year in men’s ice hockey was Sweden (2006, Turin, Italy and Riga, Latvia).

Led by returning head coach David Quinn, the Americans will look to break a World Cup gold medal drought dating back to 1933. They need constant scoring by committee. O’Connor added two assists for a three-point debut and defenseman Dylan Samberg had two helpers.

The United States has bronze in four of the last nine World Championships (2013, 2015, 2018, 2021).

“Obviously we want to win the gold medal,” said O’Connor. “Today we went up, but this is a long tournament and we just want to build with each game.”

Pittsburgh Penguins veteran goaltender Casey DeSmith defeated Finnish netminder Emil Larmi, a rookie in the IIHF. Larmi, 26, led the Vaxjo Lakers to the 2023 SHL championship and was named playoff MVP with a 1.30-pound GAA and 93.8 save percentage.

The two rivals traded first-period power play opportunities. Teemu Hartikainen, Finland’s first minor, also drew first blood at 17:07 and caught Jere Salline’s center pass from the goal line.

“Nice game on the power play,” said Hartikainen, who led Switzerland’s NL with 28 goals for Geneva-Servette. “I scored a lot of goals in Switzerland this year from there. So it was a good feeling.”

At the beginning of the second period, Finland took a two-goal lead when World Cup rookie Ahti Oksanen opened Juho Lammiko’s 2-0, but DeSmith made a great save from the left.

The Americans dominated the second set and outscored Finland 19-9. They tied the game at 1:56 on Matt Coronato’s point shot, but Jalonen successfully challenged the game for goaltender interference.

Cutter Gauthier made it 1-1 at 13:48 with a high glove-side wrister from the left faceoff circle. The slick first-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers (fifth overall, 2022) won the Junior World Championship bronze medal in January. DeSmith again robbed Lammikko with less than two minutes left in the middle frame to break the deadlock.

In the third period, Finland fell out of rhythm. After two minutes, DeSmith scored a sure goal with his right cushion from Kaapo Kakko. The situation escalated after Atte Ohtamaa tied USA forward Sammy Walker with a hip check in the neutral zone and picked up a foul.

At 9:49, O’Connor completed a slick three-way pass play and went top shelf to make it 2-1 for the Americans.

At 12:57, Tuch gave the USA a breather in the 3-1 situation. He and Rocco Grimaldi got behind the Finnish defense and Grimaldi made Larmi commit hard before sliding it to Tuch.

In the dying stages, Jalonen pulled Larmi as an additional attacker, but Tuch added an empty net at 19:12.

“I felt like I had a lot of chances in the first two sets and then I just needed Grimaldi to give me that empty-net look and obviously the empty-net at the end,” Tuch said.

Finland returns to action on Saturday against Germany. The U.S. gets a day off before facing Hungary.

Hartikainen said of the revival: “It’s good for us. We can’t just work for the first 20 minutes and hope we can win the game. It takes the full 60 minutes, and tomorrow you’ll see a much hungrier team than today.”

An energetic presentation before the game with laser and smoke effects woke up the audience. First, the video presentation introduced the new official 2023 Worlds song “We Live the Game” (Brian Allan x San Sebastian). Finnish DJ Darude skated in hockey gear and performed his global hit “Sandstorm” at center ice.

When the children’s choir sang the Finnish anthem, IIHF President Luc Tardif, Finnish Ice Hockey Federation President Harri Nummela and Parliament Speaker Petteri Orpo welcomed everyone to Tampere. The best is yet to come.