Cutting a path from Finland

Leila Navidi

Las Vegas Wranglers center Aki Seitsonen of Finland takes the ice before the team’s game against the Phoenix RoadRunners this month in Las Vegas. If it weren’t for a friend’s mother who “discovered” Seitsonen at 5, he might be installing saunas with his father back home.

By Rob Miech (contact)

Thursday, April 17, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Leila Navidi

Seitsonen (with puck), who is known in the ECHL for his strong defense, has made some timely offensive plays lately.

Leila Navidi

Seitsonen has a knack for scoring when his team is outmanned because of penalties. This season, the Finn had six such goals.

If not for his buddy’s mother, Las Vegas Wranglers center Aki Seitsonen might be repairing electrical monitors high atop utility poles in Helsinki.

That’s his uncle Jorma’s trade.

Or he could have followed in his father Ahti’s less-spiked footsteps as a carpenter who specializes in installing custom residential saunas.

Instead, Seitsonen left home at 17 to test himself in the junior hockey hotbed of Canada, a daring move for a Finn. Five years later, he’s trying to help the five-year-old Wranglers claim their first ECHL Kelly Cup championship.

He owes it all to Pirko Kitinoja, the mother of friend Juho, who watched the 5-year-old boys playing street hockey in front of their homes in Riihimaki, Finland.

She immediately took Seitsonen, whose father and older brother did not play hockey, to a rink for skating lessons.

“She saw something,” he said. “Maybe I could shoot the puck? It kind of came out of the blue, growing up on a farm. I thank her many times for doing that.”

Making a name

Seitsonen, 22, has honed that shot. Known throughout the ECHL for his exceptional defensive skills, he’s been showing a keen knack for the net lately.

His stunning goal with 12 seconds remaining Sunday gave Las Vegas a 2-1 edge in its best-of-seven National Conference quarterfinal series with Stockton.

His slick goal March 21 with 16 seconds left in a regular-season game against Alaska — Seitsonen beat the Aces’ goalie to the puck behind his net, then beat him back to the goal mouth — capped his first professional hat trick and sealed a 4-3 victory.

Both were short-handed strikes, one of his specialties. He and Travis Morin of South Carolina led the league with six goals this season when the other team had more players on the ice.

“You’re out there to kill penalties, but when you get a chance you poke at the puck,” Seitsonen said. “Maybe you go harder to get short-handed goals? Maybe you work a little harder?”

Maybe showing you can leave home for one of the best training grounds in the world, on the other side of the world, says more about you as a person than a player?

The ice is smaller. The players are bigger. The game is rougher. Try adapting to a new game while you’re also learning a new language. Seitsonen had miles to go before he could even joke with new teammates.

Out of his shell

Few Finns have attempted the transition, much less pulled it off. Neither Jari Kurri nor Teemu Selanne, standouts in the National Hockey League, left Finland at such a young age.

Esa Tikkanen landed in Saskatchewan when he was 16 but lasted only a season. He returned to play three seasons in Finland before gaining the confidence to return to Canada.

“That tells you about Aki’s character,” said Wranglers coach and general manager Glen Gulutzan. “He’s adjusted well.”

Seitsonen pondered the move all of his 17th summer. Two hours before a deadline, his agent rang as he was riding a bike in the Finnish countryside.

What the heck, he said. Let’s go with it and see what happens.

It went against the grain of typically reserved and shy Finns. When Seitsonen returns home, friends and family are shocked when he talks with strangers.

“They’re a little bit to themselves,” said Gulutzan, who played a season in Finland. “A great people. Aki has a sunny disposition. I can see where Finns think he’s outgoing.”

Seitsonen slunk back into his Finnish shell last fall when the Quad City Flames of the American Hockey League, the Calgary Flames’ top farm league, assigned him to Las Vegas. He’d spent time in the AHL the previous two seasons, but he wasn’t called up to Quad City this season.

“Frustrated, for sure,” he said. “But you realize you have to keep working hard to get up there.”

He is full of “sisu,” Finnish for determination, perseverance and will. Gulutzan said Seitsonen has made strides with the Wranglers and is ready for a full campaign in the AHL next season.

So enjoy Seitsonen while you can.

Initially, like Tikkanen, he thought he’d just try Canada for a season. But he caught on with the Prince Albert Raiders, the Finnish junior national team called twice, and here he is in Las Vegas.

“It’s five years later and I’m still playing,” Seitsonen said. “I don’t think I’ll get back to electrical school.”