Powered by three third period goals, Finland upsets USA 4-1 in the 2012 World Junior Championship on Wednesday at Rexall Place in Edmonton.

After a scoreless first period that saw few shots on either end of the ice, Finland took a 1-0 lead just 1:21 into the second period as Miikka Salomaki roofed a wrester from the circle over USA goaltender John Gibson. Despite putting up 16 shots in the second, Team USA couldn't crack Sami Aittokallio and the Finns took the 1-0 lead into the locker room.

Just 19 seconds into the third period, Brandon Saad, camped out in front of the crease and deflected a centering pass by Emerson Etem to tie the game at one. The turning point of the game came midway through the third as Simo-Pekka Riikola took a holding penalty to give USA a power play opportunity and just 15 seconds into the man advantage, Gibson polices his crease and trips a Finnish player negating the power play and shifting momentum.

Finland pounced on the opportunity to use their skill 4-on-4 as Joel Armia blew by his defender, avoided a sliding Jacob Trouba and slipped the puck five-hole to take the 2-1 lead with 9:07 left in regulation. Thirty seconds later, Mikael Granlund deflected Jani Hakanpaa's centering pass past Gibson to take a 3-1 lead and the crowd of 14,000, mostly Canadian and therefore cheering for any team playing against USA, absolutely erupted.

Armia got his second of the night by winning the puck battle against TJ Tynan and slipping the puck past a sprawling Gibson to make it 4-1 with 3:33 left in regulation.

USA will face Czech Republic on Thursday and Finland will play Denmark.

Jarred Tinordi


Jason Zucker


Charlie Coyle


Jacob Trouba


John Gibson


Dean Blais

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