With their tournament on the line as they prepare to face their biggest rival, Finland will turn to Vancouver Canucks goaltender Kevin Lankinen on Saturday.
Finland's head coach at the 4 Nations Face-Off, Antti Pennanen, confirmed on Friday that Lankinen would get the start against Sweden. The decision came after Juuse Saros was lit up for six goals on 32 shots by Team USA in their first game on Thursday.
It was an understandable decision for Pennanen to go with the veteran Saros, who has long been the best Finnish goaltender in the NHL. This season, however, Lankinen has outperformed Saros and deserves the opportunity to start for Finland.
Lankinen, who was Saros's backup the past two seasons with the Nashville Predators, has a .905 save percentage across 34 games with the Vancouver Canucks this season, which is better than the league average of .902. It's also better than Saros's .899 save percentage for the struggling Predators.
In his last chance to start for Finland in international competition, Lankinen was dominant at the 2019 World Championship to help lead Finland to gold. Lankinen had a sterling .942 save percentage in eight games, including 43 saves on 44 shots against Canada in the gold medal game. He narrowly lost out on being named the best goaltender to Andrei Vasilevskiy.
That tournament, however, was six years ago, so perhaps it was hard to give it much weight in deciding between Lankinen and Saros for the first game of the tournament.
Lankinen will be facing his Canucks teammate, Elias Pettersson, who will be looking to improve on his performance from Sweden's first game against Canada, where they managed to push the game to overtime but succumbed to a clutch goal by Mitch Marner.
Pettersson and Lankinen have faced each other before on the international stage, as Pettersson also played in 2019's World Championship. Pettersson had 10 points in 8 games at that tournament, including a goal on Lankinen in the quarterfinals but Finland pulled out the 5-4 overtime win to eliminate Sweden and keep them out of the medal round.
Pettersson and Lankinen face-off on the international stage tomorrow. It's not the first time as they both played in the 2019 World Championships.
— Noah Strang (@noahstrang_) February 14, 2025
Pettersson scored this beauty on Lankinen but Finland got the last laugh with a 5-4 overtime win. #Canucks #4Nations pic.twitter.com/AmxL6PQG7I
Given the short timeframe of the tournament, Saturday's game is crucial for both countries if they want to get to the championship game. Sweden has one point from their overtime loss but trails Team USA's three points and Canada's two points, meaning Finland has to pick up at least a point to keep any hope alive of finishing in the top two.
