But it has been in the postseason when he has truly flourished; he had 35 points (nine goals, 26 assists) with a plus-27 rating in 47 playoff games through the Panthers’ two-year championship run.
So it’s really no surprise, considering Lundell’s big-game experience, that he’s the one who came through in the clutch for Finland here.
The Finns didn’t feel they played poorly in losing 4-1 to the Slovaks on Wednesday, but they couldn’t get to the inside enough, didn’t have enough bodies at the net, and couldn’t generate much despite peppering goalie Samuel Hlavaj with 40 shots.
“Forty shots, their goalie was unreal,” Lundell said. “It happens. It’s hockey. Today we had that hunger. We wanted to win bad. We wanted to show that we’re capable of playing these tight, even games.”
Lundell swung it in Finland’s favor first by going to the net to score his goal that gave the Finns a 2-0 lead after Nikolas Matinpalo scored with a shot from above the left face-off circle at 7:44 of the first period.
Eetu Luostarinen, Lundell’s regular linemate in Florida, had the puck in the corner and whipped it toward the net.
“I saw two guys at the net, so just a good tip,” Luostarinen said. “Just try to create a lot of chaos of that, so that went in.”
Lundell said he was going to try to knock the puck in but instinctively did not.
“Yeah, I was close,” he said. “I was going to touch it, but thank God I didn’t touch it.”