Finnish ice hockey players Anna Kilponen, Minttu Tuominen and Eveliina Mäkinen are stuck in Reykjavik, and it is not certain whether they will spend the Christmas holidays in their home country or in Iceland.
12:51•Updated 12:52
Hockey players playing in the USA Minttu Tuominen, Anna Kilponen and Eveliina Mäkinen get excited about which landscapes they will spend Christmas in. The trio has been stuck in Reykjavík for more than two days due to bad weather conditions.
Urheilu reached Tuominen, 32, by phone in the morning from windy Reykjavik.
– We still haven’t booked a new flight. We’re going to the airport today to find out, when we believe that you can’t catch the right people by calling, Tuominen explains the situation.
The trio’s original one-stop tactic took longer than expected. They have already spent three nights in Reykjavik.
– We flew from New York to Reykjavik and from here there was supposed to be a direct flight to Helsinki. We were supposed to be in Finland on Monday at noon.
– We were at the airport for the first couple of nights, when we believed that yes, this is it, and tomorrow we will fly to Finland. Then we got a little tired of it and we were told that all flights to Europe on Tuesday had been cancelled, Tuominen continues.
According to Tuominen, who is familiar with Naisleijon, the trio was still hoping yesterday that the flight to Finland would be successful for today or Thursday. However, this did not happen and a temporary accommodation solution had to be found.
– We took such a nice spa hotel that we can go to the sauna. It was nice to take a shower and sleep on a soft bed, Tuominen laughs.
The Finnish trio’s visit to their home country may be short or not at all, as their return flights are already booked for Tuesday, as the games continue in the United States already in the first week of January.
Tuominen, Kilponen and Mäkinen play for the Metropolitan Riveters in the North American PHF league. The Riveters are currently fourth in the seven-team league.
Defender Kilponen (0+6) is fourth in the league’s assists market. Tuominen, who also plays as a defender, has scored 3+1 in ten matches. With three hits, Tuominen is the best scorer in the series by a margin together with Brittany Howard.
Goalkeeper Mäkinen’s save percentage of 91.3 is the fourth best in the series.