Waltteri Merelä was badly injured in Leijoni’s shirt last fall, when a skate cut his wrist. In the spring, he was deciding the Finnish championship for Tappara.
– Our dj Joni Tuulola plays a song like Survivor in the booth on game days. It sings that this is not enough today, I want better, Tappara striker Walter Merelä start.
– Maybe that’s a description of this team of ours. We won games and played well, but we always looked at what we could do better. Maybe it carried me through difficult times.
Tappara already had a 3–0 lead in the dramatic fifth final, but eventually found themselves in a chasing position.
The Pelicans led 4–3 in the third period. The Finnish championship was out of hand, but it turned out differently.
Veli-Matti Savinainen smoothing and by Marcus Davidsson overtime goal decided the ice hockey SM gold for Tapara.
– Maybe we didn’t know how to reset a good start. Pretty easy goals.
– We haven’t really had games like this, so it’s a really great end to this. In overtime in the booth, we decided that this is our job. It went well, Merelä continued.
Merelä was Tapara’s driving force in the playoffs. He scored at a point-per-game pace.
In the decisive final, Merelä recorded no less than three assist points.
It was down to a small thing that the story of Merelä’s season didn’t turn out to be a little different.
His season could have ended with a dangerous injury in the fall EHT tournament match against the Czech Republic. Merelä’s wrist was cut open by a skate and he was sidelined for more than two months.
Merelä avoided the worst nerve damage. The cut was a millimeter and a half away from the nerve.
– If you had hit it, you would never have known how the hand would recover, Merelä has commented on Ilta-Sanom (you will switch to another service).
Recently a KooKoo defender Saku Vesterinen told For Kouvola Sanomat (you will switch to another service)ending his career precisely because of a similar cut on his wrist. The 24-year-old Vesterinen said that his pain is severe all the time, and his hand has not recovered to its former state.
However, Merelä survived the situation with a start.
– It became clear pretty quickly that it’s not that serious. You never know how it will recover 100%, but it was clear that there is no talk of ending the career.
– Hitting a nerve was really close. Now there are these wrist guards, so there won’t be any more.
Merelä trained hard and aimed for the spring games. He wanted to be at his best. And so indeed he was. The attacker scored eight goals and five assists in the playoffs.
– It was always known about this spring thing, that you have to be here at your best. It worked out well.
We’ve heard that you might be heading to North America next season. What do you say to that?
– It’s on the agenda for the party again. Nothing is certain yet, but it is said to be likely. Let’s see what happens. It’s not too much to make any hasty comments yet, but that’s the goal and I’ll definitely leave when I find a place.
Merelä describes that the team had top players who could dig out the best in difficult moments.
– Great performance throughout the season, even in tough places. It’s not that simple when the human mind is such that you never know how it will react under pressure.
– This is full of virtuosos and yet a team with great demands and inner hunger. It’s no coincidence that we were able to win both the CHL and the League. Everyone always wanted better and more.