HELSINKI – Janne Niskala scored the winner in the first period, and Kari Lehtonen made 21 saves en route to a shutout as Finland downed Belarus 1-0 in their opening game of the tournament.

Vitali Koval in Belarus's goals made 37 saves.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game, but it's a good win. We played them before in Belarus, so we knew they had a good goalie and played very defensively. We knew it would be a close game," said Finnish forward Jarkko Immonen.

The passion was there, the grace was there, and the fireworks were there. The highs were very high, and the lows as low as humanly possible. And that was just the opening ceremony that included an impressive light show and national anthems sung by opera singers.

Finland was the big favourite, not only because they were the host team, cheered on by their fans, but because Belarus has never won Finland in regulation time. Their only World Championship win came in 2009 when they beat Finland 5-4 after a penalty shootout.

"We knew that Belarus is a good team, but our defence worked pretty well, and Lehtonen was excellent in net," said Mikael Granlund.

"It was fantastic to be out there today, here we go now," he added.

The hosts showed the home crowd and Belarus that it had come to play as the team that completely dominated the game. Finland outshot Belarus 12-2 in the first period, and had several good scoring chances, but Vitali Koval in Belarus’s goal always found a way to stop the puck.

Almost always.

With just 42 seconds remaining in the first period, Mikael Granlund got the puck into the Belarus zone, bounced the puck of the boards to Mikko Koivu, who dropped it to Janne Niskala.

The Finnish defenceman took a step in, and fired a wrist shot that beat Koval high on the glove side, and gave Finland the important lead in the game.

The second period was more even, and both teams got their chances on power plays.

"Our goalie played well and their goalie played well also, but we couldn't score with our power play. The first game is always the most difficult," said Belarus forward Mikhail Grabovski.

First, Belarus dug a deeper hole for itself by taking two penalties within three minutes from each other, but they also managed to kill both of them, and had a couple of good shots on Kari Lehtonen’s goal on their own power play.

The shots on goal were 13-12 for Finland in the second period.

Both teams made sure to not take any risks that would lead to turnovers and scoring chances. Belarus got their final chance with 9:51 remaining in the third period when Topi Jaakola took an interference minor but they couldn't capitalize on their power play.

"We tried, but we should have shot low and gotten more rebounds, I think," Grabovski said.

What started as a great spectacle turned into a fine hockey game between two hard working teams.

"We try to skate a lot and keep going, work hard, put pressure on them a lot. It's simple, but it's also difficult," Immonen said.

In the end, the home fans got what they wanted. A win.

RISTO PAKARINEN