SaiPa Lappenranta goalie Jussi Olkinuora played for Tappara Tampere as a youth. On Tuesday, in his first CHL game, he went into his old arena for the first time since 2010 and posted a shutout. Understandably, he was in a good mood after the game.

by Leo Runsas

TAMPERE – SaiPa Lappeenranta goalkeeper Jussi Olkinuora was a satisfied man after his team’s 2-0 victory against Tappara Tampere. Olkinuora made only 11 saves for the shutout, but nonetheless was a key factor in the win.

“It's quite a nice feeling,” the goalie said after the game. “It was fun to play and hopefully this was an entertaining game. Our team played well today. We got started well and everybody did their jobs.”

The Tappara game was Olkinuora’s first-ever in the CHL, and the 25-year-old Finn likes what he saw. “This seems to be a fun tournament. The jerseys are nice and everything is well-organized.”

Playing against Tappara was a special moment for Olkinuora, as Tappara is his junior team and he played at that club until he was 16 years old. 

“It was fun to play against Tappara. I actually trained with them last summer for a few weeks. They have an excellent team and they play really well.”

It's been a while since Olkinuora’s last visit to Hakametsa – seven years, in fact. “I played in this arena in Junior A when IFK Helsinki visited here. Actually, I even had a shutout that time too.”

Since that time he has played in North America, first attending the University of Denver, then splitting time between the AHL and ECHL. This is his first professional season in Europe, but his contract with SaiPa only runs until 3 December. The goalkeeper doesn’t stress about the future, though.

“It is true that it ends then. I can just wait until then, and take a look at what I should do after that. It's still some time away.”