The single most significant turning point in Christian Heljango’s career is scheduled for the opening weekend of the Tampere arena in 2021.
12:33•Updated 13:46
– Is this really that difficult?
Tappara’s goalkeeper Christian Heljanko says the club’s goalkeeping coach with tears in his eyes Aki Näyk too with at the gym. The goalkeeper thinks about the born deep.
It is the long-awaited opening weekend of Tampere’s new arena in December 2021.
In the first half, Ilves scores four goals for Heljango. Tappara loses the first league match in the new home arena to Ilves with 3–6 goals.
The goalkeeper did not sleep after the game.
– We wondered why we don’t go against Ilves, Heljanko recalls the late evening at the gym.
In that conversation, Heljanko and Näykki decided that if the sun rises tomorrow, we will go “towards the fire”. It can’t get any worse.
Turning point
The sun is rising, and the program of the opening weekend includes another local match the very next day. Heljanko plays a scoreless game and Tappara wins the match hosted by Ilves with 7–0 goals.
Heljanko names this moment as the single most significant turning point in his Tappara career.
– Since then it has gone quite well, says Heljanko with a smile at Tappara’s third consecutive Finnish championship celebration on Monday in Tampere.
This can be said with good reason.
After the opening weekend of the arena two and a half years ago, Heljanko as his team’s number one goalkeeper has won the Finnish championship in the spring of 2022, 2023 and 2024.
In addition, the Tappara defenseman was selected as the most valuable player of the hockey CHL in the 2022-2023 season, when kirvesrinna also celebrated the victory of that series.
This spring, Heljanko won the Jari Kurri award given to the best player in the playoffs.
Growing to the top level has required experiencing, navigating and learning from adversity.
The guarantor of working peace
Tappara renewed strongly at the start of the season. The club’s strategic policy was to play a new Swedish head coach Rikard Grönborgin in charge of a different puck than in previous seasons.
In the regular season, Tappara’s exploitative and attack-oriented style of play relied on strong goalkeeper play on the defensive end.
– Christian Heljanko gave us the peace of mind that we could drag the process from start to finish, says Tappara’s coach Juha Juujärvi.
In the next season, Tappara will try to win without Heljanko. The goalkeeper’s contract ended this season.
The goalkeeper, who has become one of the club’s legends, who in addition to his saves, excited the home crowd with his victory dances, is longing to say goodbye.
– I will definitely miss you. I hope to come back one day.