LA Kings: Maatta, Finland Top Germany; Will Face Canada for Gold

Finland, which includes LA Kings D-man Olli Maatta, edged Germany in Saturday’s semi-final and will play Canada for gold at the 2021 World Championship.

Shortly after Team Canada booked their ticket into Sunday’s championship game, Team Finland, whose roster includes LA Kings defenseman Olli Maatta, did the same as they edged Germany by a 2-1 count.

Despite being outshot by Germany by a 28-17 count, the Finns held off the onslaught to win.

Iiro Pakarinen and Hannes Bjorninen scored for Finland in the first to make it 2-0 while Matthias Plachta got Germany on the board in the second but that was all the scoring in this one.

For the LA Kings representation, it was a relatively quiet game.

The aforementioned Olli Maatta was held pointless but was a defensive asset nonetheless en route to logging 21:14 of total ice time. Kings prospect Kim Nousiainen took a penalty early, had a shot, and logged 7:19 of total ice time.

Now, Finland prepares for the gold-medal game on Sunday, a rematch of the 2019 Worlds championship game where the Finns defeated Canada. They also edged Canada in the preliminary-round finale on Tuesday, 3-2 in the shootout.

For Germany, they will play for bronze against Team USA on Sunday at 8:15 am ET (5:15 am PT).

Finland and Canada will battle for gold at 1:15 pm ET (10:15 am PT).