Ice hockey | Leijonien’s Christian Heljanko offered his grandfather a wonderful birthday present: “I hope it was a nice day”

Finland the men’s national ice hockey team started their season on Thursday evening with a convincing 4–0 win against Switzerland.

The lions’ goals were scored by a hat trick Antti Suomela and scored the opening goal Janne Kuokkanen.

In addition to the goal scorers, one of the keys to Leijoni’s victory was the goalkeeper, who made important saves and kept a clean sheet throughout the match Christian Heljanko.

Although the Nokia Arena is a more familiar place for Heljango, Thursday’s game was the first time the Tappara keeper played in the Nokia Arena in a Leijona shirt.

“It was a good atmosphere for a Thursday game, there were even more people than expected. It was nice to play”, praised Heljanko.

In particular, one of the 7,875 spectators watching the match was special to Heljango.

“Grandpa was today [katsomassa], he turned 80 and was at a hockey game for the first time in his life. It’s nice that he got to see such a successful game. I hope he had a nice day,” Heljanko said.

Heljanko admitted that playing in front of his grandfather and the home crowd, who came all the way from Porvoo to watch the game, gave the day a little extra excitement.

“Yes, you noticed that the heart rates were a little higher than normal there, but that’s how it should be, without that kind of excitement you can’t perform at the best level. I tried to go and do my own good, calm thing without any pressure.”

“As Jukka too [Jalonen] has emphasized a lot, everything has been chosen here for a reason, and there is no need to prove anything miraculous here. He just does what he does in everyday life. In my opinion, we succeeded well.”

Last in the spring World Championships, Heljanko was selected for the team, but at that time he did not get playing time in a single game. The World Cup is the goal this season as well.

“Of course, that’s the goal when I got a little involved last spring, but that’s not on my mind in everyday life. It’s just trying to do your own things every day, and it’s always the sum of many things, whether you get a call or not. Let’s do our own things well and if the phone rings, it’s just a nice bonus,” Heljanko stated.

Before the start of the match was enshrined in the Hall of Fame as Ice Hockey Lions Jukka Rautakorpi, Tuukka Mäntylä, Mikko Eloranta, Janne Pesonen, Timo Favorin and Heikki Hietanen.

“Yes, of course, it’s a big appreciation and something like that can be stopped in its own way. This is where we go about our daily lives and do things. Tämmöinen makes you stop to think that for a moment, something has really happened here,” Rautakorpi commented on the honor he received.

Despite the honor, JYP’s head coach had to return to everyday life the very next day.

“Training will continue tomorrow. My own son said something at some point when he heard about this [aateloinnista], that aijai, father is now going to the museum. I said not quite yet. The work continues,” Rautakorpi said with a laugh.

Read more: The “frozen” jerseys of the Lions were torn down from the ceiling – this is how they are handled now

Read more: Saku Koivu’s 17-year-old son Aatos made headlines – this is how an expert evaluates him

Antti Suomela, who made the hat trick, was awarded as the best Finnish player of the match. Picture: Ossi Ahola / Aamulehti