The Finnish team is enjoying great dressing room conditions at the under-20 World Cup tournament.
Nuoret Leijonat uses the cool booth of the university team Golden Gophers at the 3M arena in Minneapolis.
The cabin is really modern and spacious.
– This is an NHL-level locker room. There is a lot of space for players, maintenance and equipment. Everything is very cool. I can’t think of much better, says the person in charge of maintenance in Finland Niko Kuisma.
– There is also a sauna here, Kuisma continues.
Finland got the best booth in the 3M arena because it played in the final of last year’s World Cup and is the highest ranked team in the B group in the tournament.
The defending champion USA will play in the A group of the tournament in St. Paul and will get to use the best locker room there.
The system is clear. Ten teams participate in the tournament, five in each group.
There are not five booths of equal quality in the halls.
Angry Canada
Canada had to settle for a modest locker room at the World Cup. PDO
Canada plays in Finland’s group. According to the information received by Iltalehti, the country’s ice hockey association Hockey Canada tried to arrange the Finnish booth for the Canadian team even before the start of the tournament.
The Canadians approached the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which in turn asked the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation about the matter.
– We didn’t even discuss it. That was the end of the conversation. This booth belongs to Finland, paaluti general manager of the youth and women’s teams Kimmo Oikarinen For Iltalehti.
The locker room used by Canada at the Games is smaller than Finland’s, and it is clearly a longer walk from there to the rink.
The dressing room of the Finnish team at the 3M arena in Minneapolis looks like this. TIMO KUNNARI