The Finns, who lost 6-5 to the U.S. in round-robin play, captured their 12th medal and sixth bronze of the 30-year competition.
"It means a lot," Tukonen said. "Finland doesn't have that many medals from hockey. We just worked harder. We wanted more to win the game and now we got our offensive game lots better."
The Americans, who came into junior hockey's premier event as the pre-tournament favourites, never quite found their groove.
Finland's Lauri Tukonen is congratulated by teammates after scoring. (CP Photo/Richard Lam)
"It's overwhelming," American forward Bobby Ryan said. "We had the roster to do it and we had the guys to do it but we just got outworked. Simple as that."
On Thursday, the Americans were outshot 49-39 and outplayed in just about every facet of the game, leaving them shut out of the medals for the second straight year since surprising Canada for their only gold medal, at the 2004 tournament in Helsinki.
"We needed better production from our players in 5-on-5 play," U.S. coach Walk Kyle said. "Going in there were a lot of expectations for our team (but) there is no favorite going in." The U.S. came out flying in the first period on Thursday, taking an 8-1 shot advantage in the early going.
Bobby Ryan of the OHL's Owen Sound Attack got the only goal of the opening frame, controlling the puck off a U.S. faceoff win and banging in his own rebound off Finn netminder Tuukka Rask's pad.
In the second, it was all Finland when Jari Sailio and Joensuu scored just over 1:20 apart to give the blue and white a 2-1 lead entering the third period.
Jack Johnson drew the U.S. even with a power-play marker than sailed through Rask on the short side.
Lauri Tukonen snapped the 2-2 tie with his third goal of the tournament, a snapshot from the slot that beat Schneider's glove.
Joensuu, considered one of the top European prospects for the 2006 NHL entry draft, pocketed the go-ahead goal when Schneider kicked out a juicy rebound off Lauri Korpikoski's backhand shot.
The puck hit Joensuu and went into the net. The goal was reviewed but officials could not find any kicking motion by Joensuu.
with files from Canadian Press
