Shawhan Guides USA Jr. Select Team to Silver Medal
Published on January 5, 2004 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Soo Indians News Release
Mikka Tuomainen scored three times and goalie Tuukka Rask made 40 saves to lead Finland to an 8-2 victory over the United States Junior Selects in the gold medal final of the 2004 Viking Cup in Camrose, Alberta, Canada. The Viking Cup is a prestigious international hockey tournament including teams from Finland, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland, Norway, and Augustana, Canada.
With the win, the Finland Under-18 Selects avenged a 4-0 round-robin loss at the hands of the U.S. Selects on New Year's Day. "In the first game we respected them a little and we were scared a little, but not today," said Finland's head coach Harri Ahola. "The boys wanted to win more than the USA ... and maybe we had a little luck."
The U.S., an under-20 squad comprised of players from the United States Hockey League and the North American Hockey League, opened the scoring in the first period on a goal by Mike Radja.
Despite being outshot by an 18-9 margin, the Finns scored four times in the second period to take control of the game. Both Tuomainen and Antti Turunen scored their first two goals of the tournament in the middle stanza. Just 94 seconds into the third period Tuomas Kiiskinen scored a power-play goal before Tuomainen completed his hat trick with 7:58 to play in the game to put Finland up 6-1."He was very hot," said Ahola of Tuomainen's surprise performance.
U.S. coach Joe Shawan decided to pull goalie Phil Lamoureaux from the net in favor of an extra attacker after Tuomainen's third goal. "We had to try something," Shawan said. "It was out of reach at that point." John Dingle scored a power-play goal for the U.S. with 2:50 left to play in the game, but it was too little too late. Teemu Laakso scored into an empty net 30 seconds after Dingle's goal before Joni Finell scored a power-play goal with 1:18 left in the game to round out the scoring.
After the game, Rask was awarded with the Dominik Hasek Trophy as the tournament's top goaltender. He also earned honors as the tournament most valuable player. "He gave them the goaltending they needed to win, there's no question," Shawan said.
One day earlier, Rask made 17 stops as Finland blanked the Czech Republic Under-17 Selects 5-0 to qualify for the tournament final. The 16-year-old netminder said he had a simple strategy to keep pucks out of his net. "It was quite easy to concentrate on the game and save the pucks," said Rask, who has aspirations of one day playing in the NHL. "It's a dream of course - maybe some day, I hope so. "Ahola praised his squad for coming up big in the final against a team with players who were, on average, two years older than them. "They have big hearts," Ahola said.
The US entered the championship game undefeated in round-robin play with wins over Germany (10-2), Slovakia (6-3), Finland (4-0), Norway (17-0), and advanced to the championship game with a semi-final victory over Slovakia (6-3). This was Kewadin Casino Indians Head Coach Shawhan's 2nd stint as a coach for the U.S. at the Viking Cup; he was the assistant coach for the U.S. in 2002. Indians forward Logan Bittle was the lone Indians representative and one of only 2-players from the NAHL to be selected to the team. Bittle scored 1-goal during the tournament in a 10-2 win over Germany.
North American Hockey League Stories from January 5, 2004
- U.S. National Team Update - U.S. National Team
- Cavalry Gains On Ice Dogs - Topeka Pilots
- Shawhan Guides USA Jr. Select Team to Silver Medal - Soo Indians
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