Ice hockey player Joonas Oden’s mother carried, pissed and encouraged to the limit.
- KooKoo beat Tappara on Monday in Kouvola 3–2.
- KooKoo leads the SM league final series with a 2–0 win. Four wins are needed for the championship.
- The next match is on Wednesday in Tampere.
– One word – big. This is a huge moment for me.
That’s what the 26-year-old striker of the sensational team KooKoo of the SM League said Jonas Oden.
It’s clear that Oden is currently playing the most important games of his career.
The winger has already played in the SM league for several seasons, but he has not reached the finals before.
Now KooKoo is still leading 2–0 in the final series.
Joonas Oden may very well be the most explosive skater in the SM league finals. Pasi Liesimaa
Four jobs
The background of almost all top athletes has been influenced by their parents, who have transported, paid for and encouraged them.
However, Oden’s story has touched an extraordinary number of people.
In 2020, Oden’s single mother said in several interviews that at worst she worked four different jobs to support her sons Joonas and his brother Mark’s puck hobby.
The credit card bills swelled and Oden’s mother was exhausted, but the family survived, and now Joonas is living the current highlight of his career.
– The way my mother supports me and my brother… I hope I can do the same for her in the future, Oden said after the second final game.
Oden played in Kouvola for a large part of his junior years. Pasi Liesimaa
From finals to work
In 2011, the Odens moved from the United States to Finland to Haukiputaa.
During the 2015–16 hockey season, the family packed their bags again. This time the destination was Kouvola, where Joonas Oden played the rest of his junior years and became a league player.
At the turn of the decade, my mother’s situation also began to improve.
– When we are in KooKoo, and Joonas is already playing in a league team, there are no more money worries. I have gotten most of my debts paid back. Now I have a permanent job, and when the boys are of age, I can do my own things, Minna Hakala-Oden said in 2019 to Yle.
Joonas Oden played 2021–24 Liiga in other places, but returned to Kouvola for the last season.
– My mother watches all the matches she can. Now he does night shifts, but he tries his best to still watch my games, Oden said on Monday after the game.
– Today he was here, and now he is already at work.
Oden was born in the United States and prefers to speak English. Pasi Liesimaa
Crazy speed
Oden’s name may be familiar to Finns who follow the puck from the under-20 World Cup in 2020.
Joonas Oden scored the only goal of the match against the USA in the World Cup quarter-final. The pass for that hit was served by Tappara’s number one striker in the playoffs Christian Tanus.
At that time, Finland finished fourth in the World Championships, so Oden is now looking for the first big victory of his career.
– The atmosphere in the booth after the second win was amazing, but now you shouldn’t get too excited. There is still a lot of hockey to be played.
Oden is an exceptionally fast skater for a SM league hockey player. Even in the finals, the opponents often remain on the scaffold compared to Oden.
– I have always been fast. It started with running, and the fact that we went to the USA for speed skating lessons must also have had an effect.
Oden has collected eight power points in the playoffs. In the opening game of the final series, he had one assist.
The man demands more from himself.
– I could improve. There is nothing else to say about it.
