My Journey With Team Finland to Gold at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships

January 19, 2019 • 2 Comments

The 2019 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships were played this past Christmas in Victoria and Vancouver and like most Victorians, I was looking forward to taking in a game or three here in Victoria. But an e-mail one morning from a press agency in Finland - All Over Press, one of the leading picture agencies in Scandanavia - changed all that.

2019 IIHF U20 Ice Hockey World Championshipsxxkeikkaxx Victoria, Canada, DECEMBER 21, 2018: U20 Ice Hockey World Championships Canada vs. Slovakia. Team Canada's MacKenzie Entwistle (16) prepares for a face-off during a pre-tournament game against Slovakia at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria (Photo by Christian J. Stewart / All Over Press Finland)

"Would you like to photograph Team Finland for us during the tournament?" Well of course the answer was yes, and it led to one of the top sports photo experiences I have had in my career so far.

Team Finland was not expected to fare well at the tournament and my expectations and that of my editor, were that I would photograph the four preliminary games here in Victoria and that would be that. However, Finland had different plans.

2019 IIHF U20 Ice Hockey World Championshipsxxkeikkaxx Victoria, Canada, DECEMBER 25, 2018: U20 Ice Hockey World Championships. Team Finland prepares to do a practice drill during a Christmas Day practice session at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in VIctoria, Canada. Team Finland begins play on Wednesday night against Team Sweden.(Photo by Christian J. Stewart / All Over Press Finland)

After going 2-2 here in Victoria with wins over lowly Slovakia and Kazakhstan and losses to the Swedes and Americans, the Finns were slated to play the Canadians in a quarter-final in Vancouver. So off I went across the pond, with my editor even e-mailing me that he expected that to be the final game for me and that he did not expect Finland to win.

2019 IIHF U20 Ice Hockey World Championshipsxxkeikkaxx Victoria, Canada, DECEMBER 26, 2018: U20 Ice Hockey World Championships. Finland vs. Sweden. Team Finland's Linus Nyman (23) and Sweden's Nils Lundkvist (9) battle for the puck in front of Sweden goaltender Samuel Ersson during the opening game for both teams in Pool B at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, Canada. (Photo by Christian J. Stewart / All Over Press Finland)

Again, Finland had different plans and dramatically defeated Canada 3-2 in overtime to advance to the semi-final. That guaranteed me at least two more games and Finland then defeated Switzerland in the semi-finals and the USA in the finals to take the gold.

2019 IIHF U20 Ice Hockey World Championshipsxxkeikkaxx Victoria, Canada, DECEMBER 27, 2018: U20 Ice Hockey World Championships. Finland vs. Kazakhstan. Finland's Aarne Talvitie (25) is squeezed out by a pair of Kazakhstan defenders during Pool B round robin action at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, Canada. (Photo by Christian J. Stewart / All Over Press Finland) 2019 IIHF U20 Ice Hockey World Championshipsxxkeikkaxx Victoria, Canada, DECEMBER 27, 2018: U20 Ice Hockey World Championships. Finland vs. Kazakhstan. An exhausted Team Kazakhstan goaltender Demid Yeremeyev (30) talks with his trainer during a timeout of a Pool B round robin action at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, Canada. Yeremeyev faced a total of 56 shots in the 5-0(Photo by Christian J. Stewart / All Over Press Finland)

It was an amazing run and provided me with some great hockey images. I had my first experience shooting games at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, my first experience in shooting through photo holes in the glass (for which I amazingly had priority for in Vancouver for most games), my first experience in filing images to a press agency on tight deadlines and my first experience in learning Photo Mechanic software, which greatly speeds up selection and editing of images for processing and filing to said agency (Thanks to Adrian Lam, Kevin Light and Jonathan Hayward, among others, for tips and trick on quickly learning that program).

2019 IIHF U20 Ice Hockey World Championshipsxxkeikkaxx Victoria, Canada, DECEMBER 29, 2018: U20 Ice Hockey World Championships. Finland vs.Slovakia. Finland's Oskari Laaksonen (2) congratulates goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (1) after Finland's 5-1 win over Slovakia in Pool B round robin action at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, Canada. (Photo by Christian J. Stewart / All Over Press Finland)

It was cool to see my images being used in the Finnish and Swedish press and even more fun to try and use Google Translate to read the articles in English. Trust me, the translation does not work well and the resulting headlines and articles were very entertaining to read. Try it here to see what I mean.

2019 IIHF U20 Ice Hockey World Championshipsxxkeikkaxx Victoria, Canada, DECEMBER 29, 2018: U20 Ice Hockey World Championships. USA vs. SWEDEN. Team USA's Quinn Hughes (7) has a glorious chance to score in overtime of a Pool B round robin game aganst Sweden at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, Canada. (Photo by Christian J. Stewart / All Over Press Finland)

Some of my favourite images from the tournament are presented here. The full lot of the 16 games I ended up photographing can be found HERE . Enjoy!