Last year, Finland barely made the IIHF World Championship quarterfinals and the team’s first two games this year have not been especially reassuring to the team’s fans. Playing against Austria and France, teams that Finnish team in past years might have beaten easily, the Finns have managed wins of 2-1 and 4-3 in overtime.

It could have been worse. Trailing 3-1 late against France, Eeli Tolvanen scored twice in the last two minutes of the third period to tie the score. He then assisted on Juuso Parssinen’s overtime winner.

“Maybe we should have scored those goals a little earlier,” Tolvanen sighed with relief after the game, according to Jatkoaika. “Still, it says something about our team that we pushed until the end and worked hard. We knew that as long as we kept going, the bounces would come from there.”

Finland outshot Austria 28-16 and France 51-19 but faced two hot goalies: Eeli’s brother Atte for Austria and Washington Capitals prospect Antoine Keller for France.

“It’s difficult when (the opposing goalie) plays a game like that – it’s easy to get frustrated,” said Tolvanen.

Tolvanen has produced 41 and 35 points the last two seasons for the Seattle Kraken and, playing with Teuvo Teräväinen and Juho Lammikko, is expected to be one of Finland’s stronger offensive players at this tournament. The line had had plenty of chances before finally breaking through in the late going against France.

“In the first and second periods, Teukka (Teräväinen) put a puck in the middle of my wheelhouse and I should have put it under the bar,” he said. “It’s a shame that I wasn’t able to put our team in the lead at that stage, but it’s good that the rebounds came in the end.”

This is 26-year-old Tolvanen’s second World Championship – he played in both the Winter Olympics and Worlds for Finland in 2018 – and it’s been a special tournament for him already. As mentioned, he faced his brother in the first game. A goaltender for Red Bull Salzburg since 2021, the elder Tolvanen has become a naturalized Austrian citizen and is playing in his first World Championship.

“It's a pretty historic moment,” Tolvanen said before the Austria game. “I’m getting to play against my brother for the first time. I don’t know if there have been many times in the World Championship where a pair of brothers play against each other on teams from different countries.”

After signing with Seattle, Oscar Fisker Mølgaard should stay another year in Europe Oscar Fisker Mølgaard, 19, has signed a three-year, two-way, entry-level contract with the Seattle Kraken worth an average of $950,000 US per season, <a href="https://www.nhl.com/kraken/news/seattle-kraken-agree-to-terms-with-oscar-fisker-molgaard-on-entry-level-contract">the NHL club announced on Friday</a>.

In fact, the Tolvanens were the third such pair – the first two were Robert and Martin Reichel, who played for the Czech Republic and Germany, respectively, and Steve and Larry Rucchin, who represented Canada and Italy, respectively.

While Tolvanen was eventually able to pick up three points against France – which now leads Finland – he was blanked in the opener by his older brother.

“Of course it's a good thing – otherwise he would have reminded me of it,” Atte was quoted after the Finland-Austria game.

“We didn’t speak to each other before the game,” Atte noted. “We both knew that we had to take care of our own games. We would let the actions speak for themselves, we would see the end result, and only get together afterwards.”

Finland’s next game is on Monday night against Sweden, which is another team that Austria has given fits at this tournament. Despite the team’s offensive struggles so far, Tovlanen does not see cause for alarm.

“We’ll just try to continue the same on offense as we did today (against France): stay on the puck and go for the net,” he said. “I’m confident good things will come from it.”

Filip Forsberg: ‘You Can Talk [Crap] About Austria As Much As You Want, But They’re Good’ After a dominant 5-0 win over Slovakia in their opening game of the 2025 IIHF World Championship, the Swedes had more trouble with their second game against Austria, needing a late comeback to win 4-2. Swedish media didn’t seem impressed with the team’s performance in the second game, but when asked about it Filip Forsberg was full of praise for the Austrian team.