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*puolivalmiste* · 08-15-2019, 06:46 AM

One of most exiting things in Björn Leppänen's life so far was being drafted to Vancouver Whalers 27th overall during 49th SMJHL draft. Little did he know that out of all places on earth, in Vancouver he would find himself with a man who had greatly impacted his career. When Björn walked to Whalers locker room during first day at team's training camp he saw a strangely familiar face that he yet could not recognize. But when coach introduces this 6 foot 5 inc defender to Björn, things fell in place and for that story we need to take look 3 seasons into past.

Three seasons ago, on april which was lot colder than usual, during Finnish Junior Hockey Association's Kummola Cup playoffs on west division, Pargas Färja which finished 7th out of 8 teams during round robin had found themselves on playoff run that no one could have imagined when they started their first series versus second placed Koskenkorva Krapula and were down 2-0 in series before turning it into 3-4 win for themselves. Their hearts were burning, their will was unbreakable and they were led on ice by defenceman Björn Leppänen who scored 6 goals and 12 assists during first series.

After that they got 4-1 victory from Vahdon PalloSeura and in western finals they swept Niinisalo Tykistö. Björn was on record run scoring 19 goals and 23 assists in their 16 games and it looked like he would be top pick in upcoming 47th SMJHL draft.

On next round of playoffs Champion of Western division, Pargas Färja and Champion of Eastern division, Lemi Lääke, clashed in series that would go down in history. Färja had strong start winning first 2 games 6-2 and 4-1 but in third game Lääke showed they could make them bleed winning the game 1-2, as their goalie Parketti Likainen had earned enough money to buy goalie mask and that improved his game greatly.

Fourth game was played at Pargas and home crowd helped team to claw their way to victory on second overtime period after being down 3-0 at start of third. Björn was once again on top of his game scoring a hat-trick during third period to push game into overtime. Game winning goal was scored by Lääke's captain Paha Arkkitehti who scored own goal on empty net while he made wide pass during delayed penalty. He was devastated and didn't return for series.

Now Färja had 3-1 lead in series and Lääke had lost their captain, their coach was already making preparations for next series that would be played versus Champion of South, Herwood Hockey Club. And as their focus was shifting too far ahead 5th game that was played at Lemi was turning point for Björn's career.

Start of fifth game was pretty even and Färja out shot Lääke 9-7 in first period but neither were able to score a goal. Best change to take lead was during second period when Lääke had 5 on 3 power play for 53 seconds but were not able to find back of net.

Maybe it was lack of focus and being tired from last game going to double overtime fifth game went all the way to sixth overtime period on scoreless tie and players started to be tired and frustrated. When game had been running for 172 minutes and 18 seconds Björn Leppänen was on ice with puck launching powerful shot from blue line but that shot was blocked by huge defender from Lääke, Victor Toeman. Björn was able to recover puck but was soon after checked by Victor and then something in his head snapped.

As Björn rose up, anger was all he could feel, no more tiredness nor frustration, just irrational burning anger. Like a wind he skated after Victor who had puck behind their own net waiting lines to change. Lääke's second line right wing Puolikas Ihminen was first one to pass Björn and in his unfocused anger Björn went and crosschecked Puolikas into face leaving him on ice to collect his helmet and teeth while Björn blasted towards Victor. As Victor saw what Björn did to his teammate he dropped his gloves and Björn did the same.

Victor having about 6 inches and 50 pounds on Björn the fight looked like it would be pretty one sided. They took multiple punches at each other, it was primitive clash. Then Björn took hit to his face and dropped on his knees, crowd was cheering. Björn's body told him to stop but his spirit cried, never! For him it was not only man against man, it was east versus west, it was the battle of wills. On his knees he punched Victor between his legs and as Victor lost his balance Björn went on rampage dismantling Victors face. It took 3 referees to stop Björn, paramedics carrier Victor away and Björn was escorted to locker room.

Björn got double 5+20 minutes penalty from fighting and cross checking to face. 2 minutes and 43 seconds into power play Lääke scored game winning goal. Björn was suspended for rest of season and Victor was hospitalized for several weeks, neither were on ice to see how Lääke turned series around winning game seven 6-0 and then got swept by HHC in Kummola Cup finals.

Later on summer Björn got fined for assault in court and while waiting for judgement SMJHL draft went by without his name coming up. Björn was also suspended for whole next season. Year without play did not rise his draft stock and he went undrafted again.

Last season Björn got back to Finnish juniors but he could not play the game like he used to. He finished season with 1 goal, 2 assists and 87 minutes of penalties, but someone in Vancouver saw hope in him. Maybe he could return to his former glory.

He never saw Victor again before meeting him in Vancouver locker room, but something had changed. It looked like Victor had no idea who he was and for that Björn was grateful cause he doubts Victor could ever forgive him. He later found out that after being drafted to Vancouver during season 47 Victor's condition was diagnosed to be worse than it seemed at first and he had problems with memory and could not really improve his game or learn new things.

So here Björn is, struggling to play with his first victim, being bottom pair of team and setting new personal records on how many goals you can let in while defending. Karma is a bitch.

1159 words

***WannabeFinn*** · 08-15-2019, 08:04 AM

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