Malmö 5 January 2014.
Rasmus Ristolainen got up in front of the goal and rolled the puck into the net. A great individual performance brought Nuori Leijon the third world championship in history.
– The goal in overtime was incredible. I would be willing to pay quite a lot if I could get to that moment. On the other hand, I would never want to. It was such a unique, completely mixed feeling, Top Nättinen remembers.
Nättinen watched the goal from the penalty box as he did throughout extra time.
– I wouldn’t even have wanted to go on the field. Excited so much. It would have gone to avoid mistakes. Fortunately, there were players who dared to play, and because of that, some of them have certainly had great careers.
Nättinen, who spent the best years of his playing career in the SM league, is currently an expert at Urheilu. Ristolainen, who scored the decisive goal, plays in the NHL.
Beating Sweden in overtime and in Sweden was memorable in many ways. Nättinen recalls that Finland should have had no chance against Sweden.
Of course, Finland had the upper hand Saku Mäenalanen–Teuvo Teräväinen–Artturi Lehkonen and on the finish line Juuse Saros, but Sweden’s pack was even tougher. Current NHL stars Filip Forsberg, Elias Lindholm, Andrey Burakovsky, Alexander Wennberg and so on.
– Even though we beat Canada in the semi-final, we shouldn’t have had any pieces, and there really wasn’t any in the game.
– Of course, looking back, we had a good team. Teräväinen won the point exchange and scored two points per game. Mäenalanen won the goal exchange and Saros should have been chosen as the best goalkeeper of the tournament.
Finland totally ruined Sweden’s party. Sweden had already booked the market and the limousine, which was of course a natural preparation.
The mistake was that this information leaked inside the Finnish team.
– The last rivet in this mental battle was that we saw the gold helmets reserved for the Swedish team before the game there in the hall’s window. Of course they had been brought there, but they were revealed.
Nättinen sees that Sweden’s preliminary preparations brought more power to the Young Lions. In view of all this, it felt good to silence the arena.
– You can’t get any closer to the feeling of the 1995 world championship. It was so wonderful that I got to such a moment and to overtime, Nättinen recalls.
– Sure, it would have been incredible to win in the home games, but I was more fired up to silence the home crowd and see the disbelief in the opponent’s eyes after the game and later on from the videos. It was a crazy thing.
Nättinen played in the finals in a triple chain, but his playing in the games was uncertain for a long time. Nättinen didn’t make it to the under-18 tournament, but later success in the legendary tournament in Lake Placid led to the belief that he could make it to the under-20s.
In the end, one training game decided to reach the competition team.
– Last night Karri Kivi said at the hotel that it’s Topi result or out. This game practically determines whether you’re in the race.
– I played really well against Canada. Nothing was said to me after the game, but I saw that the other guy was packing his stuff. I realized I’m in the Games.
However, Nättinen’s passport was not stamped at the race venue at first. It surprised Nätti, because Alexander Barkov and Olli Mäattä wasn’t about to let the NHL join the team.
– I was in a pretty low mood for two games and really disappointed. I got to join, but not to play.
When the race pass was stamped and Nättinen got away, the game location and power points didn’t matter. No, even though Nättinen, known as a “statistics geek”, practically lived on power points throughout his career.
– Then they were not interesting at all. It was crowned when I was the only player not to get a single power point in the tournament.
– It was a wonderful experience that I could throw myself into making the team and nothing else mattered.
Nättinen remembers the games fondly. He points out that during his career he did not get to experience the same feeling as on the day of the final.
In addition to the exciting final, the long journey from the Pohjola camp to this point was on my mind. It was probably the last international match of his career, and it remained that way.
– I have never gotten into that feeling. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t sleep during the nap. Such adrenaline and body feeling. That feeling in my body was inexplicable.
Now, ten years later, Nuoret Leijonat will go again as underdogs to fight for medals on Swedish soil, this time in Gothenburg.
This time too, Finland is participating I flew to Hämeenahon, Jani Nymanin and Konsta Helenius like future stars. However, Finland cannot be counted as early favourites.
The cloak of surprise and hero is available again.
Urheilu follows the games closely in the application and on its website. Moods are also conveyed on Urheilurutu and Urheiluradio. The match program can be found here.