Strong to the Finnish

By Seth Walters, griffinshockey.com

In world hockey tournaments with powerhouse countries such as Canada, the United States, and Russia, you might not expect a small country like Finland to make much noise. Grand Rapids Griffins defensemen and Finland natives Vili Saarijarvi and Oliwer Kaski both played critical roles in giving the European country of less than six million people something to cheer about over the past few years.

“People here don’t understand how big the world championship is in European countries,” Kaski said.

Saarijarvi earned gold for Team Finland at the IIHF World Junior Championship in January 2016, while Kaski helped his home country hoist the trophy at the IIHF World Championship in May 2019.

Saarijarvi’s favorite memory in hockey took place in Helsinki, Finland, in January of 2016. Finland was playing for a gold medal against a strong Russian team that featured current teammate and fellow Detroit Red Wings 2015 draft pick Evgeny Svechnikov.

“It meant a lot to be part of that team. A lot of those players are already superstars in the NHL and it was an honor to play with them,” Saarijarvi said. Some of those stars include Mikko Rantanen (Colorado Avalanche), Sebastian Aho (Carolina Hurricanes), and Patrik Laine (Winnipeg Jets).

“It was late in the game and I knew we had a big opportunity to take the lead,” Saarijarvi remembered.

With just two minutes to play in regulation, Saarijarvi earned the primary assist on the go-ahead goal scored by Rantanen. While quarterbacking the power play unit, Saarijarvi faked a one-timer before juking the defender and wristing one at the net. Rantanen deflected the shot, sending the mostly Finnish crowd into a frenzy.

“Our first power play carried us the whole tournament. We had a big moment in that gold-medal game. I was able to make a fake and Rantanen was able to get a tip on it.”

Up 3-2 with under a minute to play, victory was on the horizon for Finland. But with six seconds to go in regulation, the Russians evened the game to force overtime.

“We didn’t panic,” Saarijarvi said of the team’s mentality in the locker room before overtime. “We said, ‘we’re gonna go out there and score the goal and that’ll be it.’”

Just eight months removed from falling in overtime to Team USA in the World U18 gold medal game, Saarijarvi and Finland finally got to taste gold. It only took 92 seconds of the sudden death period for Kasperi Kapanen to seal it with a wraparound goal. Saarijarvi, who was manning the blueline when the goal was scored, was the first to celebrate with Kapanen on the ice, amidst the celebratory launching of equipment as the rest of the team stormed the playing surface.

“My whole body started cramping,” Saarijarvi recalled, smiling. “It was nice to celebrate with the guys on the ice, in the locker room, and with the country afterwards as well.”

While reminiscing on the celebration, Saarijarvi recalls NHL Hall of Famer Teemu Selanne cheering in the stands alongside Finnish president Sauli Niinistö. “The whole country was behind us.” Over 13,000 people filled Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, while another 2.5 million people – nearly half of the Finnish population – watched on television.

Just three short years later, Finland emerged victorious in another major international hockey tournament.

Fresh off a 51-point effort for the Lahti Pelicans that ended with regular season MVP honors in Finland’s top professional league, Kaski donned a national team jersey for the first time in his career at the 2019 IIHF World Championship in Slovakia.

With only a couple players on the roster with even a hint of NHL experience, Kaski embraced Finland’s underdog status against teams like USA, Canada and Russia that were complete with star-studded NHL players.

“The media said we had one of the worst teams in the history of Team Finland in the world championship. We got some fuel from that and played good hockey the whole tournament.”

He recalls the waning minutes of the semifinal game when Russia had a combined 3,000 NHL points on the ice. “They had Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Evgeni Malkin and Nikita Kucherov all on the ice at the same time.” In the 2018-19 season, Ovechkin led the league in goals with 51 while Kucherov’s 128-point season was highest mark of any NHL player in the last 22 seasons.

After prevailing over the formidable opposition by a score of 1-0, Finland completed their Cinderella run with a 3-1 victory against Canada in the championship game.

Cheering on Finland once again was Selanne, but this time not in the stadium. He was one of the 3.14 million watching on television, wearing his full uniform – complete with skates and a helmet – from the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Winning a championship at any level is at the top of any hockey player’s memories. Doing it on the national stage against elite competition makes it that much more special.

Kaski became Steve Yzerman’s first free-agent acquisition as Red Wings general manager when he inked a one-year deal on May 28, just two days after the championship game. Since being drafted in 2015, Saarijarvi is playing in his third full season in Detroit’s organization.

As the only two Finns on the roster, Kaski and Saarijarvi share pride in their home country and have developed camaraderie with each other. The two up-and-coming right-handed defensemen continue to play important roles on the talented Grand Rapids blue line.

Photos at top by Getty Images