The legendary goal stick Jouni Rinne matured into Leijon

When talking about Finland’s most mythical hockey legends, you have to Jouni Rinne mention among the first.

Many may have noticed that Jouni Rinnee’s name appeared on the League’s website last week.

The article was about the Fastest goals, and Rinne wrote his name in the record book in the winter of 1977. Rauman Luko’s 20-year-old forward found an almost incomprehensible mood against Lahti Kiekkoreipa.

In the opening set, Rinne scored a hat trick in 14 minutes. The second and third goals were scored six seconds apart. Rinne set aside the record for the two fastest goals at the main league level, which Ässien Jaakko Honkanen had done in the SM series ten years earlier.

Rinne was completely unstoppable in the game. In the match that ended with Luko’s 12–5 victory, he scored 4+4=8 points. It remained the SM league record for the next decade, when Risto Jalo, Timo Susi and Kari Jalonen reached nine points.

Golden wrists

Suomi-kiekko knows two “Golden Wrists”, of which Jouni Rinne is the original. He also grants the nickname to its second holder To Kai Nurmi.

– He is the only one who shoots even close, “Joukki” carves.

Rinne is the youngest goal scorer in league history. He won the title when he was only 19 years old in the opening season of the SM League in 1975–76, when he scored 36 goals in 36 matches.

– That was the time, and now the “best before” day has already passed when we are retired, Rinne, 66, says of his achievements.

– I have never felt like shouting about what I have done.

Koutsina to the field

Perhaps an even more legendary trick was performed by Rinne at the age of 42 as KalPa’s second coach in the fall of 1998. He woke up his team by jumping into the basket with superiority and scored 0+2 in 24 seconds – more than eight years after the end of his active career.

– Those ships sail with luck, he acknowledges.

– Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone on the ice if I hadn’t known that my hands and head were still good enough. The body was no longer enough.

During the season, Rinne also managed to act as head coach and team manager.

It was a difficult season, even impossible. Badly in debt, KalPa remained Liiga’s jumbo, dropped out of the league and went bankrupt in the summer of 1999.

– When you survived it sane and alive, nothing can kill you anymore, Rinne describes Savota’s pregnancy.

Comic situations

Goals and passes alone do not explain Jouni Rinne’s legendary reputation.

A large part is based on the story of an incredible natural talent. Maybe also to the fact that the man has not shown off in public.

– Sometimes there have been quite comical situations, Rinne says.

– There have been occasions where we are dealing with hockey and people start talking about our country – and I am standing next to it.

Rinne was not the most spartan athlete in Finnish hockey, but in addition to a magical shot, his arsenal included phenomenal game intelligence, cutting passing skills and explosive starting speed.

His career also had strange twists and turns that need explanation. For example, why the national team point guard played for years in divar i.e. at a series level corresponding to the current Mest.

Kiekko University

Rinne played for Luko already at the age of 16, and in the spring of 1973 he was bringing the team back to the SM series. The performance of the teenage prodigy in the qualifiers gave indications of the future: 10 matches, 11+8=19.

– I played Isaksson’s Esan and Jylhä “Jussin” with, i.e. with two former national team members. It was a hockey college.

In his first league season, Rinne also won the B-junior championship gold for Luko. In addition, he completed military service in Santahamina at the age of 17.

– The distance between Rauma and Helsinki became familiar on the bus, he laughs.

– From B, I have silver, bronze and gold – in that order. Those are the only medals I’ve ever won.

In his first two league seasons, Rinne scored a total of 41 goals in 66 matches. The third one brought the goal kingship, when the pace was even more fierce: a goal per match.

Tappara won the points exchange Martti Jarkkoand Rinne was second before HIFK Matti Hagman.

An iconic chain

The puck fans of the old league still remember Luko’s dazzling youth chain Rinne – Forss – Laiho, where Jari Laiho represented the same age group as Rinne and Matt Forss was only 18 years old.

– Many times it even went as far as transporting older players, Rinne describes the chain’s shenanigans.

– The older players were running in circles and didn’t know what was going on.

What often happened was the skillful Forss’s perfectly timed vertical pass to Rintee, who, with a sharp change of rhythm, broke away into the draw position.

Nothing else was needed. The laser-precise wrist shot came straight from the skate, and the finish judge knew how to have his finger on the button already.

The red light came on and the crowd was in awe, but The Final Countdown was recorded only ten years later.

– As a rule, I shot all the guys down, Rinne remembers.

It worked when goalkeepers still played upright.

However, the myth of mindless natural gifts is only partially true. There was also a huge amount of training in the background.

– I shot a lot from plywood at home. My hands got stronger, which helped me to push the kudi down.

Lion games

During his super season, Rinne played in both the youth and men’s World Cups and the following fall in the Canada Cup.

It was the construction years of Suomi-kieko, and the plinth was just being poured. The spring 1976 WC Katowice is mostly remembered for the fact that Finland avoided relegation to the B series only with a victory over East Germany in the last match.

Rinne was the fourth best scorer in Finland, but the Canada Cup went more slowly.

– It went down the drain. I think I only played two games.

Rinne met the legendary Pori team during the last World Cup Tapio Levonwho also played in the Canada Cup in September 1976.

– “Pratsa” said well, when it was remembered, that it seemed to be a bit in the wrong series.

Finland remained the jumbo of the tournament, but still beat Sweden.

In the World Championships, Rinne represented Finland for the second time, in Moscow 1979, when the ranking was fifth.

– In Katowice, I still watched with cloudy eyes, what was happening here. At that time, the national team had an old-fashioned hierarchy. There were older dudes, and the young people who came from the country were a bit like boys.

– Moscow was already easier when I knew what to expect.

To the number one divar

In 1980, Rinne surprised by moving to the first division side HPK.

– Lukko didn’t show interest, and basically I thought I’d quit.

The information is startling, because Rinne was only 24 years old and had the most effective season of his league career: 36 games, 23+44=67.

– I wanted to go to Lake Placid and I was second or third in the League’s points exchange, but I didn’t make it to the games.

In the spring, a tournament was played in Sweden, where Rinne was invited. He was awarded as the Lions’ best player.

– I thought that if I didn’t qualify for the Olympics in February and at the beginning of April in the Swedish Cup I was perhaps the best striker in Finland, then let the small circles be. The national team didn’t really interest me anymore.

“Stopping” was also influenced by the fact that Rinne studied at a technical college. In the end, the career continued – thanks to the offer made by HPK – for another dozen years.

Rinne scored 51+43=94 in 35 games and then returned to Rauma in 1981.

Cross your skis

Luko’s financial background was not as strong as it is today, far from it, but now it called its big boy back.

– I made a two-year contract, but in the fall I broke my leg. After that, I played too early, and I fell out with Luko.

According to Rinne, Lukko wanted to negotiate his salary.

– They say there was no money, and I should have cut the contract in half.

This did not suit the player. Rinne moved to a lower tier again, first for two years to FoPS and then to KalPa.

In Forssa, Rinne remembers that he scored 2+8 in one game.

– I had been on the ice three times before I went to play.

In KalPa’s shirt, Rinne collected the record points of his career (40, 36+60=96) and in the spring of 1986 he was promoting the team to the League.

For the next four seasons, Rinne played for KalPa Liiga.

He scored the first league goal in the club’s history and scored 46, 52 and 58, and in the last league season of his career in 1989–90 another 50 points – in just 37 games.

– There were a lot of games where I didn’t even play, I was just in the lineup. The places were already so broken.

Shirt on the roof

According to Rinnee, ice hockey has changed a lot since his own playing years.

– The number of exercises has increased, and it is now a profession. Today’s hockey and the hockey of the 70s and 80s are two completely different sports. Only the rules and the name are the same.

In Luko, Rinne played with number 16, and in Kuopio his game number 27 is frozen on the ceiling of the hall.

The puck legend of two cities must be asked if the man considers himself to be from Rouma or from Kuopio.

– I’m probably not really anything, I live in Kajaani, he answers.

– The people of Rauma are said to be on his bumwhen in an interview I said that I consider Kuopio more my own than Rauma.

– But I also go to Rauma to watch a game maybe once a year. I will go to one or two games in Kuopio.

The matter was fixed at 18.10. The slope’s record points were not 36+40=96 but 36+60=96.