Juuso Puustinen scored 32 goals and 71 points in 64 games in his rookie WHL season with the Kamloops Blazers. |
Gold had returned to Finland.
An underdog in a tournament that included such dominant teams as Canada, Russia and Sweden, the Finns were not expected to challenge for a medal at the 1998 World Junior Championships. Canada had won five of the previous six gold medals, the Swedes had played runner-up for four of the past six tournaments, and the Russians had the next great superstar -- a dynamic young winger named Maxim Afinogenov, who looked to many to be the second coming of Pavel Bure.
The Finns were supposed to be an afterthought. They had center Olli Jokinen, who looked to be a top pick in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft, but they still were miles behind the top teams in the tournament.
Unfortunately for those other teams, nobody thought to tell the Finns.
An overtime goal by Niklas Hagman in the gold-medal game in front of a packed house -- 14,000 out-of-their-mind Finnish hockey fans -- clinched the gold for the first time since 1987 and sent the fans into a frenzy.
This tournament will mark the 10th anniversary of the second Finnish WJC title -- a span of years that saw the Finns take only three medals, all bronze. Since that tournament, the Tournament Directorate's most valuable forward, Olli Jokinen, emerged as a superstar in the Sun Belt, and Hagman found a checking role on a defensive Dallas Stars team that perennially challenges for the Stanley Cup.
Since that date, Finland has emerged as fertile goaltending ground and consistently has produced some of the world's top talent at that position.
Since that date, Finnish fans everywhere have been looking for another reason to stand and sing.
Leadership
The Finns will not be able to rely on a superstar in the making like Jokinen. They will have a very deep team, one that is highly competitive and responsible defensively. They will rely on a goaltending duo as strong as any in the tournament. In fact, the two Finnish netminders are so strong, either of them would challenge for a starting role on any other team in the tournament.
Relying on their goaltending and defensive prowess does not mean the Finns are without offensive threats, but it does mean they will play to their strengths.
Forwards Niclas Lucenius, Jan-Mikael Juutilainen and Max Warn all are more than capable of putting the puck in the net, but they will be playing a hard-checking, shot-blocking system that limits chances and creates offense off turnovers, mistakes, and, especially, off the forecheck.
The Forwards
The Finns' offensive attack will be team-based rather than individually motivated, with the sort of grim determination that makes these skaters some of the world's most-feared competitors.
Four of Team Finland's forwards have been selected by NHL teams in recent years: Juuso Puustinen (Calgary, 2006), Warn (Dallas, 2006), Lucenius (Atlanta, 2007), and Juutilainen (Chicago, 2006). Of that group, Puustinen and Juutilainen would be the most familiar to North American fans as each plays for a North American junior team.
Puustinen enjoyed a very successful rookie season with the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League, scoring 32 goals and 71 points in 64 games. His offensive output has fallen off somewhat, but this season he still has 12 goals and 24 points in 32 games. Puustinen has a deceptive shot and very dynamic stick skills, but does not always show the same energy level of his industrious teammates.
Lucenius boasts an extremely developed skill set, for which he was chosen by Atlanta in the fourth round of the 2007 draft. He competed for the Finnish U-18 team in 2007, and in six games scored once and added an assist for two points.
In addition, Siim Liivik competes with the Waterloo Blackhawks of the USHL, along with teammate Juutilainen. Thus far in 2007-08, Liivik has scored four goals and seven points in 18 games, on a Blackhawks team that has gone 13-6-4 through 23 games this season.
With only three players returning from last year's WJC team, the Finns will be a young squad, but fortunately, all of their "kids" should contribute. Forwards Eetu Poysti and Tomi Sallinen, and defenseman Joonas Jarvinen all were key contributors for Finland at the 2007 U-18 tournament, so much so that they were selected as their team's top players by their coach at the conclusion of the tournament.
Poysti was especially good as he led his Finnish teammates in scoring with three goals and six points in the six games.
The Defense
The Finnish defensive corps does not possess a dominant power-play quarterback or a hulking physical presence. Instead, each of the skaters has the skills necessary to compete at this level, and there are very few holes among the group.
Of the Finnish defense, only Joonas Lehtivuori has been drafted, as he was taken in the fourth round by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2006. A gifted offensive skater who plays bigger than his 5-foot-11, 172-pound frame, Lehtivuori skates with Ilves Tampere, and has posted solid numbers of five goals and 16 points through 31 games this season.
The Finns also will be expecting big things out of Jarvinen, the youngest member of the Finnish team, who starred for their U-18 team in 2007. Jarvinen is a solid, stay-at-home defender who uses his 6- 3, 211-pound frame to his advantage and competes in all areas of the ice.
The Goaltending
Backstrom |
With a history of producing successful NHL netminders like Miikka Kiprusoff, Niklas Backstrom, Vesa Toskala and Kari Lehtonen, it should come as no surprise that Team Finland's strength will be between the pipes.
A steady group of extremely talented goaltenders has been filtering out of Finland for years now, with future stars like Boston's Tuukka Rask and Tampa Bay's Karri Ramo seemingly the next big stars on the horizon. In addition, the goaltending duo in this tournament -- Tampa Bay prospect Riku Helenius and Harri Sateri (2008 NHL Draft eligible) -- could become future stars, too. Each is highly touted, plays far beyond his years and competes with the skill and determination that has characterized Finnish goaltending prospects like those mentioned above.
Helenius, the older and more experienced of the two, is a very large goaltender whose quick feet and agile frame betray his size; he is listed at 6- 3 and 202. Helenius was a highly touted prospect in his draft year as he took his Ilves Junior B team to a championship before moving to the world stage at the U-18 championship and earning a silver medal. Helenius was named that tournament's top goaltender.
He crossed the Atlantic for the first time this season, and now competes with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL. In his first year of competition in North America, the 15th overall draft choice has skated to a 2.61 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage while maintaining a record of 8-7-5.
Sateri likely will see less time in this tournament than Helenius, but he definitely will have his own time to shine, as he also possesses game-breaking ability and competitiveness. The only first time draft-eligible skater on the Finnish roster, Sateri has good size with remarkable reflexes for such a big kid -- he is listed at 190 pounds on the Finnish roster. Recently, he was listed by Central Scouting as the top Finnish goaltender (and that's saying something) available for the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.
Whether these two share games or whether Helenius takes the starting job, one thing is certain: Team Finland will not have goaltending issues in this tournament.
Intangibles
Tight-checking, overly aggressive teams with excellent goaltending and a will to win always are dangerous, but in a tournament set up in this fashion -- including single-game eliminations, short overtimes and shootouts -- they become even more deadly. The Finns almost always are in the mix come WJC time. Their 13 medals are third behind only Canada and Russia. This tournament will be no exception to that maxim.
With the additional motivation -- something the Finns rarely lack anyway -- of competing in the 10th anniversary of possibly the greatest World Junior moment in Finnish history, you can be sure Team Finland will be ready.