For some reason, Juho Olkinuora, whom the television broadcasters stubbornly called Jussi in the credits, became the MVP of the World Championship. And besides that, he is also the best goalkeeper. A nice addition to the gold medal he won with the Finnish team. He missed three goals in the final with the Canadians and the semi-finals with the Americans. Not the best result. But even if we take these matches into account, Alkinuora has an incredible statistic: 1.11 pucks per game.

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Yuho had a strong group stage, but was not initially considered an unconditional debut. First, he had to win the competition from Harri Syateri. The former goalkeeper of Siberia and now the guardian of the Arizona gates has outstripped Olkinuora at the Olympics in a similar situation and helped the Finns take gold from Beijing. They began to play alternately in the host World Cup, but after the defeat of the Syateri at the gate with the main goalkeeper, everything became clear for Jukka Jalonen.

Olkinuora left the ice without missing a goal three games in a row. Great Britain and Austria are suitable competitors for producing crackers and breaking records. But Czechs are already a harder nut. The championship’s top scorer, Roman Chervenka, and David Pastrnyak from Boston are also there. It’s worth getting rid of these guys. Yes, and in the playoffs Olkinuora made its mark. Would the Finns have won gold with a different goalkeeper? Maybe. But if you pick the best from an even roster with the fewest stars, then Yuho’s nomination comes to mind first.

Alkinuora is far from being the only goalkeeper to be named World Cup MVP. The first pancake and trap lord to be given this title was Dennis Andras. At the host World Cup, the Germans reached the semi-finals with him at the gate, almost stopping Russia. A year later, Victor Fast received a similar award. It is quite funny that the goalkeeper of the Swedish national team was considered the best until the end of the final, when he missed six goals from the Finns. Prior to Olkinuora, Pekka Rinne was the MVP of the World Cup from Finnish goalkeepers in 2014, when Suomi’s team lost the decisive match against Russia.

However, Alkinuora is the first MVP goalkeeper to win the final and the first KHL player to win the title. True, officially Juho has been listed as the goalkeeper of Swiss Biel for almost a month. But last season, the Finn played in our league, playing 36 games for Metallurg in the regular season and one more game in the playoffs. Olkinuora lost his only game in the last Gagarin Cup and conceded three of Barys’ goals. He spent one more game of the first round of the playoffs behind Vasily Koshechkin, after which he left the country.

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Metallurg’s Finnish goalkeeper was one of the first to leave Russia, collaborating with Salavat Yulaev and his compatriots from Sibir. Was his departure a disaster for the team of Ilya Vorobyov? The situation was not a stalemate, as the Urals took on the role of security goalkeeper Ivan Nalimov in the deadline. Only Nalimov was taken, thereby replacing Vasily Koshechkin. In January, it was unclear whether the experienced goalkeeper would continue his career. His health problems were so serious that he doubted his return. Against this background, the departure of Olkinuora became a cause of increased concern among the Magnitogorsk coaches.

Although Alkinuora had beaten Koshechkin in fair competition for nearly the entire regular season, his escape actually didn’t affect Magnitogorsk’s prospects. Unless Vorobyov had to constantly change the age bracket to give him at least a few more minutes. If the steelworkers had the Olkinuora option, the goalkeepers could be turned more actively. But where is the guarantee that Yuho and Vasily will feel comfortable with such competition? Perhaps precisely because Fin left, leaving Koshechkin almost alone, the veteran made a luxury playoff? When you realize that everything depends on you, a second wind usually opens. And nobody lost the CSKA final, but the goalkeeper did not. And it was impossible for the goalkeeper alone to win the final. Even if this goalkeeper is the World Cup MVP.