The Finnish NHL star recalls his amazing trick – Gives one important piece of advice

Anton Lundell got to the prize-giving ceremony at the 2021 Games, when Finland won silver. KalP’s Kasper Simontaival accepts precious metal at Edmonton’s Rogers Place. PDO

Florida Panthers’ Anton Lundell played in the U20 World Championships in 2019 and 2021.

The first tournament ended with the world championship. Sports fans have a memory of when Kaapo Kakko completes the winning goal of the Young Lions only about a minute and a half before the final buzzer.

At that time, Finland beat the United States in the World Youth Championship final 3–2.

– Twice I was involved. Gold from Vancouver is the first thing that comes to mind. Winning gold in Canada is a great thing.

– At the time, I was still a cage head and participated when I was younger, a couple of years before reserve age. That experience there was gold in itself, Lundell tells Iltalehte.

Display location

The World Youth Championship tournament is a place for a talented national team player to be screened in the direction of NHL teams.

– Through the tournaments, I got my name on the lists of NHL teams, so to speak. That Vancouver tournament was a highlight for me. When you play in Finland, you follow the NHL clubs quite a bit. Those tournaments are important.

Lundell’s last tournament ended with bronze. In the 2021 tournament, he served as Finland’s captain.

Lundell won the team’s internal point and goal exchange with power points of 6+4=10, with which he shared the third place in the point exchange of the entire tournament with Germany Tim Stützlen and John-Jason Peterkan with.

– Those were Edmonton’s bubble races. The coronavirus pandemic was still on at the time, a hundred times.

Work as a team

Although the U20 tournament is a personal showcase for the players, Lundell reminds us of the importance of team play.

– You should go to the tournament relaxed and enjoy everything. As a team, you have to do things there, together.

– When you work hard, good things happen, thinks “Lunkka”, who plays in the world’s toughest hockey league for the third season and wears the shirt of the Florida Panthers.

By the TV

Lundell plans to follow the Young Lions’ preliminaries on television.

– Because of the time difference, I guess some of the games will be at a bit of a funny time. I will play games if I can. It’s a tough tournament and I have great memories of it.

Finland starts the tournament on December 26 with a match against rock-hard Canada. The champion of the last two years, Canada, is among the favorites to win the tournament this time as well.

During the last 11 seasons, only three countries have celebrated the World Cup gold for under-20s: Finland, the United States and Canada.

Russia’s competition history looks especially dark. The last time the country won age group gold was in 2011. In the 2000s, the country has only been able to win three championships.

Russia is naturally out of this year’s tournament as well.