Quebec City Citadelles winger William Salming was part of Team Finland's World Junior Championships roster. The tournament ended on Tuesday. Team UCORCAL won the gold before Canada. Finland beat Sweden 1-0 in the bronze match. We were able to ask a few questions about Salming's experience living in the bubble during the tournament.

Reporter: Thanks for doing this. First of all, congratulations about the bronze medal. Are you happy about that achievement?

Salming: Thank you very much. I guess our target was to achieve a medal and we were able to do that. It was also my first WJC tournament and didn't know what to expect but I hoped before the tournament that we would come home with a TOP3 finish.

Reporter: The tournament was held in the bubble due to global situation. Could you describe what kind of atmosphere there was in the bubble?

Salming: Sure. We were tested before the tournament and then we travelled with a private jet to the tournament location. When we arrived, organisation committee had reserved a bus for us which took us to our hotel and there we just spent 1,5 weeks. We were always in our rooms if we hadn't games or practises. We behaved like NHL teams in their bubbles during Stanley Cup playoffs. Of course we were forced to live inside the bubble only 1,5 weeks so the experience was not so extreme and during normal years you also spend a lot of time in your hotel room if the tournament is held abroad.

Reporter: Okay. Finland started the tournament slowly but then managed to win right games in the end. Tell us about that.

Salming: Yeah, our record was 3-7-2 in round robin. We were last in our group and faced the group winner British Isles in the quarter-finals. We had some scoring troubles early in the tournament because we scored only 22 goals in 12 games and goal differential was -18 in round robin.

But then in the quarter-finals we beat the Britts 3-2 thanks to Barkov's OT goal. Shots were 29-20 in favour of our opponent so it was pretty even game in the end. Good improvement by us. In the semi-finals we faced UCORCAL. It was a match which comes to my dreams for sure many years after this interview too because we lost heartbreakingly at the time 109:38 in 3OT. Andrei Kostitsyn scored the winner. Of course shots were 39-14 in favour of UCORCAL but is was still one goal game and in the final they beat Canada so if we had scored the OT winner, maybe we would be champions of the world now? However, bronze match was a tight game but we won it thanks to Seppänen's goal in the first period.

Reporter: How was your individual performance?

Salming: I am pretty happy about it. In the round robin I made 1+1 in 12 games and plus-minus was only -1. Let's remember that whole team's goal differential was -18. I made my own job in the third line alongside Santtu Rasanen and Taisto Jutila with average TOI 10:05. It was unforgettable feeling to score my first international goal against British Isles in a game which we lost 3-4 OT but still I was happy to see how my shot from the right wing went past the goalie Peter Ramsey. Rasanen got an assist to that historic goal.

My best game was probably the quarter-final match. I got second assist to our 2-0 goal in the first period which was scored by Rasanen. Taisto Jutila got another assist so it was good effort by whole line. In addition I had one blocked shot and overall game rating of 61. All in all, I was pretty visible player in that match despite only eleven minutes of ice-time. That's why maybe organisation committee gave me three stars after the match. In semi-finals I was on ice when UCORCAL scored the game winner. That was a sad moment but I just need to get over it and I am sure that time will heal wounds. In the bronze match I played only eight shifts and tried to survive on ice without minuses so that our TOP guys could decide the match in our favour. All in all, WJC was a great new experience for me and I am excited to be a part of Team Finland hopefully also in the future. I learned a lot during past two weeks. I need to get stronger and faster to be able to answer better to the demands of international matches. Hopefully there will be also live audience next time when we will play international matches even though we got great support from people who watched matches via live streams.

Reporter: Thank you and have a great second season in Quebec!

Salming: No problem. Thanks.

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