The incredible trio entered the army at the same time – “Not everything can be published”

Stanley Cup winner Kimmo Timonen played for years in the NHL against Miikka Kiprusoff. One thing first comes to the mind of a Kuopio resident.

– He always played a lot. Kipper could play up to 70 game seasons. That’s a lot for a goalkeeper. He is a year younger than me, so we often played against each other and we also followed his career, says Timonen.

– Yes, Kiprusoff was one of the world’s best goalkeepers of his time. It’s a sure thing.

Kiprusoff’s NHL career began in 2001 and ended in the spring of 2013.

As a second cleaner

Pekka Rinne got his jersey on the roof of Nashville Hall in February 2022. Kiprusoff is only the second Finnish goalkeeper whose number was frozen.

Coincidentally, Timonen answers Iltalehti’s call in an interesting place.

– I’m in Nashville for a meeting with the former captains of the Predators. I went for a morning run to see Pekka Rinne’s statue, so here I am next to the statue. It’s a good place to talk about Finnish goalkeepers.

Timonen already knows Kiprusoff from his days in Turku. In retrospect, a rather amazing trio of NHL legends happened to do military service.

– We went to the inti Heikkilä barracks together. Aki Berg was also there at the same time. Kipper is a pretty quiet guy in the group, but when you get to know him, he does have a sarcastic sense of humor, says Timonen.

Not all stories can be told.

– Yes, it may not be possible to publish everything. It is said that Kipper also knew how to relax during his playing years, Timonen laughs.

No worries

In game matters, Timonen emphasizes the Turku native’s reliability.

– You never had to worry about Kipper and his work. When he had a shift, he always did his job. It was the same in the national team and club teams as well.

– I only have good memories of him from his time in Turku and later with the national team. Only positive things come to mind.

Kiprusoff played a total of 523 NHL regular season games. At the end of the 2005–2006 season, he was awarded the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender, the first Finn in history.

An evening of tears

The evening of the second day of March far away in Calgary was again historic in Finnish ice hockey. The townspeople celebrate their mystical goalkeeper.

The game number 34 used by Kiprusoff was retired.

In the celebratory match, the opponent was the Pittsburgh Penguins.

– All in all, a great moment for the Kiprusoff family and Flames fans. These things don’t happen very often in Finnish ice hockey, Timonen reminds.