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Arttu Välilä scored the decisive goal at 2:11 of extra time as the Finnish squad pulled off a stunning four to three victory over the two-time defending champion American team on Friday night in the IIHF World Junior Championship last eight.

"Got to give full credit to the US," stated Finland's leader A. Kiviharju. "That's a fantastic squad, loaded with exceptional individuals and a well coached team. But I said we wanted that payback from the previous final, and I believe we kind of earned it this evening."

In the semifinal matches Sunday, the Finns will take on Sweden, while Canada will meet Czechia. The Swedes defeated Latvia 6-3, Team Canada had a first-period five-goal outburst in a seven to one romp over the Slovakian team, and the Czechs overcame the Swiss by a 6-2 score.

Dramatic Final Frame and Extra Session

The Michigan State Spartan Lee Ryker tied it for the United States with one minute and thirty-three seconds remaining in the third period and the Notre Dame goalie Nick Kempf pulled for an additional skater.

Lee Tuuva and J. Saarelainen scored in a fifty-five-second burst in the third period to hand their team a 2-1 lead. He tied it at 2 with 7:17 to go, then set up his teammate's game-leading goal with 6:22 on the clock. Saarelainen also assisted on Tuuva’s goal.

Key Performances and Reactions

The BU blueliner Cole Hutson had a goal and an assist for the United States after being struck in the back of the head versus Switzerland and missing two games.

"In my opinion we executed well for a lot of the game," Hutson said. "But the little bounces that they got, a lot of their high-quality opportunities resulted from our errors."

His BU teammate Cole Eiserman gave the U.S. a 2-1 edge on a man advantage with nine minutes and forty-five seconds left in the second period. He took a feed from his teammate and fooled Petteri Rimpinen with a one-timer from the right circle.

Hutson scored on a rush thirty-five seconds into the second. H. Ruohonen tied it at 4:46 on a snap shot from the left side.

Goaltending Stats

• Rimpinen saved twenty-eight attempts.
• Kempf made twenty-one stops.

The U.S. squad lost their final two games – falling six to three to the Swedes on Wednesday in the group finale – after starting with their first three.

"It was an privilege to coach this team," stated the American bench boss. "They played a great game today and came up just short. All credit to Finland. It's an empty feeling right now, but our players gave it all they had."

Other Playoff Results

In the late game in the host city, the Canadian team routed Slovakia with the aforementioned first-period explosion.

C. Reschny, Tij Iginla, Michael Misa, Sam O’Reilly and Brady Martin scored in the opening twenty minutes, and P. Martone and Cole Beaudoin scored in the second. Jack Ivankovic turned aside twenty-one shots.

"Just goes to show how dominant we can be," B. Martin said. "Going up five-nothing advantage, it kind of saps their morale."

In the first quarter-final, A. Frondell scored twice for Team Sweden against Latvia. The defender L. Sahlin Wallenius contributed a goal and two assists to aid the Swedish side stay undefeated in their five outings.

In Minneapolis T. Galvas, Samuel Drancak, A. Jiricek, Petr Sikora, J. Klima and Jakub Fibigr scored for the Czech team.

Consolation Match Outcome

The German team won the relegation game, beating the Danes 8-4. M. Schams scored twice to ensure his nation keep its spot next year in the main event. The Danish side was relegated to Division I-A.