It was 30 years ago today. Well, technically, the Gold Medal Game of the 1995 Ice Hockey World Championship was played at the world's largest spherical building – the.arena then called the Stockholm Globe Arena, now Aviciii Arena – exactly 30 years and five days ago, but the celebration the nation’s first gold medal kickstarted was certainly no signs of dying five days later.
To a generation of Finnish hockey fans, the arena will always be linked to the game in which Finland beat their archrivals, Sweden, 4-1, in Sweden, no less.
A victory doesn’t get any sweeter than that.
As is still often the case, Finland entered the tournament as a wild card, behind the usual suspects, Russia, the Czech Republic, and of course, the 1991 and 1992 world champions, and 1993 silver medalist, Sweden.
However, the team believed in themselves. At their first event of the new season, their Swedish coach Curt Lindstrom handed out a booklet titled, “Gold in Globen.”
Back in 1995, the home-ice curse – that wouldn’t be broken for almost twenty years – was just ten years old, not quite a thing yet. Not enough of a thing for the Swedes to be worried anyway. What did concern the Swedes, and the Canadians, was the NHL lockout that extended the NHL regular season to May 3, the day of the Ice Hockey World Championship quarterfinals in Stockholm.
Finland’s big stars were still young, and they had stayed in Europe to play in the 1994 Olympics in Milan, Italy, where the team also proved they could not only keep up with the big boys, but that they just might be big boys themselves.
Lindstrom brought with him a management style that was unusual to most Finns. He listened to the players, and he trusted them to do the best decisions on the ice.
Finland had one of the tournament’s best lines in Saku Koivu – Ville Peltonen – Jere Lehtinen (who is the team Finland GM today).
“Koivu was the brain of the line, Peltonen the goal scorer, while Lehtinen worked hard and played defensively. They scored a lot of goals in the tournament,” Lindstrom told this reporter for "Joukkue vailla vertaa" (Finnish for "A Team Like No Other"), a 10th anniversary book on the team.
A depleted Canadian roster also helped Finland’s road to gold medals. The Finnish Llons finished second in the group and played their quarterfinal against France who had managed to finish third, ahead of Canada, behind Russia and Italy. In the semifinal, Finland beat the Czech Republic, 3-0, while Daniel Alfredsson scored the OT game-winner in the Swedes’ semifinal against Canada to set up the final between the two Nordic neighbors.
Before the final, head coach Lindström wrote a letter to the players, reminding them of the fact that the entire country was behind them, and that May 7 would be their day.
And he was right.
Ville Peltonen scored a natural hat trick in the first two periods and added an assist to Timo Jutila’s 4-0 goal. Even the Jonas Bergqvist goal didn’t matter as the arena was rocking. Finland won their first gold medals.
“The arena was so loud, and the bench was ecstatic. I don’t think we would’ve noticed if the Zamboni had come out in the middle of a shift,” defenseman Petteri Nummelin said. “I’m not sure if we ever even heard the signal.”
After the buzzer, team captain Timo Jutila hoisted the old, golden trophy, designed by Zdeněk Němeček, a Czech sculptor.
“One of the most memorable moments was when they raised the Finnish flag, and everyone sang our national anthem. My Mom and Dad were in the stands, and I found them in the crowd. The President of Finland sent a telegram, and Prime Minister came to the dressing room,” he said.
The Swedes very nothing but great at their moment of loss. They handed out the traditional golden helmet reserved to the champs in Sweden, to the Finns, and even gave them the champions’ buss to go to the downtown Stockholm square to meet the fans.
“We took their tournament song, the gold medals, the helmets, and even celebrated where Tre Kronor usually celebrated,” defenseman Hannu Virta told Finnish Helsingin Sanomat last week
Meanwhile in Finland, people didn’t know what to do or how to behave so they went nuts, driving around honking their horns, bathing in fountains, and just climbing up lamp posts.
The game was a classic, but the celebration became a generational milestone. A “where were you when” moment.
Finnish Air Force fighter jets escorted the team’s plane back to Finland where the players were ushered to cars that drove through town to the Helsinki market square where 100,000 fans greeted their heroes. Due to the crowds, the cars moved so slowly that some of them overheated and fans had to push them.
The celebrations continued for days as different towns across the country welcomed their very own world champions back home and handed them awards.
“Of course, that team has its special magic,” said Jere Lehtinen. “After all, we were the first ones to win the world championship.”
“It’ll always be the first, and that will stay with us always,” added Koivu.
On Monday, we’ll see if history will repeat itself. Or just rhyme.
To a generation of Finnish hockey fans, the arena will always be linked to the game in which Finland beat their archrivals, Sweden, 4-1, in Sweden, no less.
A victory doesn’t get any sweeter than that.
As is still often the case, Finland entered the tournament as a wild card, behind the usual suspects, Russia, the Czech Republic, and of course, the 1991 and 1992 world champions, and 1993 silver medalist, Sweden.
However, the team believed in themselves. At their first event of the new season, their Swedish coach Curt Lindstrom handed out a booklet titled, “Gold in Globen.”
Back in 1995, the home-ice curse – that wouldn’t be broken for almost twenty years – was just ten years old, not quite a thing yet. Not enough of a thing for the Swedes to be worried anyway. What did concern the Swedes, and the Canadians, was the NHL lockout that extended the NHL regular season to May 3, the day of the Ice Hockey World Championship quarterfinals in Stockholm.
Finland’s big stars were still young, and they had stayed in Europe to play in the 1994 Olympics in Milan, Italy, where the team also proved they could not only keep up with the big boys, but that they just might be big boys themselves.
Lindstrom brought with him a management style that was unusual to most Finns. He listened to the players, and he trusted them to do the best decisions on the ice.
Finland had one of the tournament’s best lines in Saku Koivu – Ville Peltonen – Jere Lehtinen (who is the team Finland GM today).
“Koivu was the brain of the line, Peltonen the goal scorer, while Lehtinen worked hard and played defensively. They scored a lot of goals in the tournament,” Lindstrom told this reporter for "Joukkue vailla vertaa" (Finnish for "A Team Like No Other"), a 10th anniversary book on the team.
A depleted Canadian roster also helped Finland’s road to gold medals. The Finnish Llons finished second in the group and played their quarterfinal against France who had managed to finish third, ahead of Canada, behind Russia and Italy. In the semifinal, Finland beat the Czech Republic, 3-0, while Daniel Alfredsson scored the OT game-winner in the Swedes’ semifinal against Canada to set up the final between the two Nordic neighbors.
Before the final, head coach Lindström wrote a letter to the players, reminding them of the fact that the entire country was behind them, and that May 7 would be their day.
And he was right.
Ville Peltonen scored a natural hat trick in the first two periods and added an assist to Timo Jutila’s 4-0 goal. Even the Jonas Bergqvist goal didn’t matter as the arena was rocking. Finland won their first gold medals.
“The arena was so loud, and the bench was ecstatic. I don’t think we would’ve noticed if the Zamboni had come out in the middle of a shift,” defenseman Petteri Nummelin said. “I’m not sure if we ever even heard the signal.”
After the buzzer, team captain Timo Jutila hoisted the old, golden trophy, designed by Zdeněk Němeček, a Czech sculptor.
“One of the most memorable moments was when they raised the Finnish flag, and everyone sang our national anthem. My Mom and Dad were in the stands, and I found them in the crowd. The President of Finland sent a telegram, and Prime Minister came to the dressing room,” he said.
The Swedes very nothing but great at their moment of loss. They handed out the traditional golden helmet reserved to the champs in Sweden, to the Finns, and even gave them the champions’ buss to go to the downtown Stockholm square to meet the fans.
“We took their tournament song, the gold medals, the helmets, and even celebrated where Tre Kronor usually celebrated,” defenseman Hannu Virta told Finnish Helsingin Sanomat last week
Meanwhile in Finland, people didn’t know what to do or how to behave so they went nuts, driving around honking their horns, bathing in fountains, and just climbing up lamp posts.
The game was a classic, but the celebration became a generational milestone. A “where were you when” moment.
Finnish Air Force fighter jets escorted the team’s plane back to Finland where the players were ushered to cars that drove through town to the Helsinki market square where 100,000 fans greeted their heroes. Due to the crowds, the cars moved so slowly that some of them overheated and fans had to push them.
The celebrations continued for days as different towns across the country welcomed their very own world champions back home and handed them awards.
“Of course, that team has its special magic,” said Jere Lehtinen. “After all, we were the first ones to win the world championship.”
“It’ll always be the first, and that will stay with us always,” added Koivu.
On Monday, we’ll see if history will repeat itself. Or just rhyme.