Norwegian goaltender Lars Haugen managed to stop 35 of 38 shots against Canada on Thursday, but he couldn’t maintain nearly that level of play when asked to start for the second time in as many days.
Haugen surrendered three first-period goals to Finland on 13 shots today. Although he did have some good saves during the 20-minute frame, his final goal on a shot by Jori Lehtera looked particularly preventable. Lars Volden replaced him, but allowed a goal to Lauri Korpikoski on the second shot he faced.
Norway doesn’t have much of a chance of winning this game, but in this tournament the amount you lose by is important too. When it comes to determining your seed for the playoffs, a team’s goal differential is used as the third tiebreaker after your position in your group and points.
That’s why Norway didn’t pull Haugen in the dying minutes of the Canada game -- they wanted to maintain the two-goal differential rather than increase their slim chances of winning.
With that in mind, it’s worth adding that Canada currently has a 4-0 lead over Austria in the other Group B match.