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Finland's Arttu Välilä scored the decisive goal at two minutes and eleven seconds of overtime as the Finnish squad engineered a remarkable four to three victory over the reigning two-time champion United States on Friday evening in the world junior hockey quarter-finals.

"We must give full credit to the United States," stated Finnish captain A. Kiviharju. "That's a fantastic squad, full of exceptional individuals and a well coached team. But I mentioned we wanted that payback from last year, and I think we truly deserved it this evening."

In the semi-finals Sunday, Finland will face Sweden, while Canada will meet the Czech Republic. Sweden beat the Latvian side six to three, Team Canada produced a first-period five-goal outburst in a 7-1 rout over Slovakia, and Czechia overcame the Swiss by a 6-2 margin.

Dramatic Third Period and Overtime

The Michigan State Spartan Lee Ryker tied it for the United States with 1:33 remaining in the third period and the Notre Dame goalie Nick Kempf off for an extra attacker.

Lee Tuuva and J. Saarelainen found the net in a 55-second span in the third to give Finland a two to one advantage. He leveled the score at two-all with seven minutes and seventeen seconds left, then set up his teammate's game-leading goal with six minutes and twenty-two seconds on the clock. Saarelainen also assisted on Tuuva’s goal.

Notable Contributions and Post-Game Comments

The BU defenseman Cole Hutson recorded a goal and a helper for the Americans after being struck in the head versus Switzerland and missing two games.

"In my opinion we executed well for a lot of the game," the defenseman said. "But the small details that they got, many of their high-quality opportunities resulted from our mistakes."

His university colleague C. Eiserman gave the U.S. a 2-1 lead on a man advantage with nine minutes and forty-five seconds remaining in the second period. He accepted a pass from Hutson and fooled Petteri Rimpinen with a one-timer from the right side.

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 wing.

Between the Pipes Stats

• Rimpinen stopped 28 shots.
• The American netminder recorded twenty-one stops.

The Americans fell in their final two games – losing 6-3 to the Swedes on Wednesday in the group finale – after starting with their initial three matches.

"It has been an privilege to coach this group," said the team's coach. "Our guys played a terrific game tonight and came up just short. All credit to Finland. It's an empty emotion right now, but our players left everything on the ice."

Additional Playoff Results

In the late game in Minneapolis, the Canadians routed Slovakia with the aforementioned first-period explosion.

Cole Reschny, T. Iginla, M. Misa, S. O'Reilly and B. Martin tallied in the first period, and P. Martone and Cole Beaudoin connected in the following period. J. Ivankovic turned aside twenty-one shots.

"This demonstrates how dominant we are," B. Martin said. "Going up five-nothing lead, it really saps their confidence."

In the first quarter-final, A. Frondell netted a pair for Team Sweden against Latvia. The defender Leo Sahlin Wallenius contributed a goal and two helpers to help the Swedish side remain perfect in five games.

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis T. Galvas, Samuel Drancak, A. Jiricek, Petr Sikora, Jiri Klima and J. Fibigr provided the goals for the Czech team.

Relegation Match Result

The German team triumphed in the relegation game, beating Denmark 8-4. M. Schams had two goals to help Germany retain its spot for the following season in the main event. Denmark was relegated to Division I-A.