On Sunday in Bratislava, Slovakia, Finland and Canada met in the IIHF World Championships Gold Medal game. A rematch from the opening game of the tournament, Team Finland came away with the same 3–1 result over Canada to win the IIHF World Championships gold medal for the third time in the nation’s history. Chicago Blackhawks and Rockford IceHogs players Kevin Lankinen and Henri Jokiharju took home their first IIHF World Championships Gold medals in their careers, while Dylan Strome took home a Silver with Team Canada.
Lankinen, Jokiharju take home gold at IIHF World Championships
With a roster not as brimming with NHL talent as others in the tournament, the Finns were able to land second in Group A behind the Canadians with a 5–1–1 record. On the back of IceHogs goaltender Kevin Lankinen, Finland was 4–1–0 in the Group stage.
Finland headed into the Quarterfinals against Sweden as underdogs and after scoring the game’s opening goal, Finland surrendered three straight to face a 3–1 deficit early in the second period. They were able to pull even with two goals in the second period, but Blackhawks defenseman Erik Gustafsson put the Swede’s ahead 4–3 late in the second period. With time running out in the final frame, Finland’s captain, Marko Anttila, scored the game-tying goal with under two minutes to play to force overtime. The overtime period lasted just a minute and a half, as Sakari Manninen scored the game-winner with an assist from Lankinen.
Following the win over Sweden, Finland again take advantage of a stellar performance in net from Lankinen as he shutdown the heavily-favored Russians. Lankinen pitched a 29-save shutout as Anttila again played hero, scoring the game’s only goal midway through the third period, setting up a Gold Medal game between Finland and Canada.
Kevin Lankinen (left) makes a save for Team Finland in the IIHF World Championship Gold Medal game against Canada as his Blackhawks teammate Dylan Strome (right) looks on. (Photograph courtesy of Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)
As he did in the tournament’s opening game, Lankinen again held the Canadians to just one goal as the Finns scored three unanswered goals in the second and third periods to win the country’s third-ever IIHF World Championships Gold Medal. Lankinen stopped 21 of 22 Canadian shots in the Gold medal game.
For the tournament, defenseman Henri Jokiharju tallied three assists in 10 games played. With the IIHF World Championships gold medal win, Jokiharju now has a World U18 Championship gold and a World Junior Championships gold and becomes the seventh player in history to win all three. His teammate, NHL Draft-eligible Kappo Kakko, also has all three gold medals, becoming the eighth player all-time to do so.
Henri Jokiharju recieves his IIHF World Championship gold medal. (Photograph courtesy of Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)
Jokiharju won his World Junior Championships gold medal earlier this year, while Kakko won all three gold medals this year, making him the first to do so before being selected in the NHL Entry Draft. It is hard to argue that Jokiharju needs any more time to develop before being an NHL-regular for the Blackhawks next season.
Finnish goaltender Kevin Lankinen receives his gold medal after Team Finland’s 3–1 win over Team Canada in the IIHF world Championship Gold Medal game. (Photograph courtesy of Matt Zambonin/HHOF-IIHF Images)
Lankinen finished the tournament with a 7–1–0 record in eight games started. His 480:41 minutes played was second only to Russia’s Andrei Vasilevskiy‘s 488:02 minutes. Lankinen also finished second to Vasilevskiy for the best save percentage, as his .942 was beat by Vasilevskiy’s .945 save percentage. The gold-medal-winning Lankinen’s 1.50 goals against average (GAA) was the tournament-best mark, beating Vasilevskiy’s 1.60 GAA. Lankinen, Vasilevskiy and Switzerland’s Reto Berra led the tournament with two shutouts apiece. Vasilevskiy was awarded the Best Goaltender award for the IIHF World Championships tournament, but surely Lankinen’s gold medal will suffice as a consolation.
For his future, Lankinen is signed through the 2019–20 season with the Blackhawks organization and is currently slated to be the starting goaltender for the Rockford IceHogs to begin the year. In the 2018–19 season, Lankinen split his time between the IceHogs in the AHL and the Indy Fuel in the ECHL, finishing the year playing with Rockford, but sitting as the No. 3 goalie on the team for the last month of the season. If the Blackhawks make no moves at the AHL or NHL level at the goaltender position, Lankinen looks more than capable of shouldering the load in Rockford and pushing Collin Delia for his penciled-in backup spot with the Blackhawks.
Kevin Lankinen celebrates with the IIHF World Championship Trophy after Team Finland’s 3–1 win over Team Canada in the Gold Medal game. (Photograph courtesy of Matt Zambonin/HHOF-IIHF Images)
Rounding out the rest of the Blackhawks’ performances at the IIHF World Championships:
- Dylan Strome (Canada)
- Silver Medal: 10 games, one goal, five assists
- Artem Anisimov (Russia)
- Bronze Medal: 10 games, four goals, two assists
- Dominik Kubalik (Czech Republic, unsigned)
- Fourth place: 10 games, six goals, six assists
- Erik Gustafsson (Sweden)
- Fifth place: Eight games, two goals, two assists
- Marcus Kruger (Sweden)
- Fifth place: Eight games, two goals, one assist
- Dominik Kahun (Germany)
- Sixth place: Eight games, one goal, four assists
- Patrick Kane (USA)
- Seventh place: Eight games, two goals, 10 assists
- Alex DeBrincat (USA)
- Seventh place: Eight games, seven goals, two assists
- Philipp Kurashev (Switzerland)
- Eighth place: Eight games, one goal, three assists
- Mathias From (Denmark, unsigned)
- 11th place: Four games, zero points
- Andreas Martinsen (Norway)
- 12th place: seven games, zero goals, six assists
With the IIHF World Championships complete, this marks the end of the 2018–19 hockey season for all levels of the Chicago Blackhawks organization with just the Stanley Cup Final yet to be determined. Stay tuned to The-Rink as we prepare for the NHL Entry Draft on June 22 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the opening of NHL Free Agency on July 1.