It’s become the big rivalry in European women’s hockey over the past few years, and so it felt good for the Finns to beat Czechia 4-2 on Czech ice in the third game for each team at the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship.
“It’s always a big fight to play against them,” said Finnish defenseman Ronja Savolainen, who chipped in with a goal and an assist. “Before it was Sweden but now it’s Czechia. Every time I play against them, I just want to beat them and they want to beat us.
“They have a lot of good players, good team, and so do we, so those games are the best. We get a lot of games against them during the season – we don’t really play against the U.S. or Canada that many times.”
The rivalry has taken a bit of a different twist for Savolainen this season as she now plays for the Ottawa Charge, where she’s teammates with several players that are in this tournament and three who played for the Czech team tonight – Tereza Vanisová, Aneta Tejralová and Kateřina Mrázová.
“It’s always hard to play against them,” she said. “I’d like to have them on my team (here) too. Soon I’ll have them (back) on my team, but it’s nice to get a win over them.”
She later said, “After the game, we can laugh and have fun together but when you’re out there, you play for your team and want to beat them. Then after the game, you’re friends. Obviously, I love them a lot but I’m also happy to win.”
The rivalry and PWHL teammates aside, the win was a big confidence boost for the Finns, who started the tournament with a really tough schedule and fell 7-1 to the USA on Wednesday, then 5-0 to Canada on Thursday.
“The first two games weren’t our best, so I’m really proud of the team that we could play this well,” said Savolainen. “Obviously, there are still things we can do better but a win is a win.”
Jennifer Gardiner Records 3 Points In World Championship Debut Playing With Montreal Linemates: 'They're Such Great Role Models'
Jennifer Gardiner made quite a World Championship debut on Thursday,
recording two goals and adding an assist in <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/womens/international/canada-wins-world-championship-opener-against-finland">Canada’s 4-0 victory
over Finland</a>. Gardiner, 23, played on Canada’s top line with
captain Marie-Phillipe Poulin and Laura Stacey, with whom she’s had
incredible success so far in her rookie season with the Montreal
Victoire.
With a boisterous home crowd behind them, the Czechs came out flying in the first period and took a 1-0 lead. But it was also the second game of a back-to-back for the hosts, and the Finns used their speed to turn the tide in the second period.
“We believed in ourselves,” said Savolainen. “The two previous games we had rough starts – I think 3-0 after 10 minutes – so we wanted a good start. Today we were down 1-0 but I could feel in the team that we were still really strong. It didn’t really matter, we believed that we could be better and, of course, it was nice that we could score four goals. It means a lot for the whole team’s confidence.”
Finland wraps up the group stage on Monday against Switzerland with a chance to secure the third seed heading into the quarterfinals.