American forward Lukas Svejokvsky, who started the season with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch but signed with Finnish club Ilves Tampere on Monday, made his Liiga debut on Friday night in the Tampere Derby at a sold-out Nokia Arena – the home rink of both teams. He scored twice, helping seventh-place Ilves to a 4-0 victory over third-place Tappara – Liiga’s three-time reigning champion.
“It was awesome!” 22-year-old Svejovsky said after the game. “It was so much fun to be part of – the atmosphere and the crowd. It was definitely a game I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
Svejkovsky scored Ilves' second and third goals.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQt9Q0iBliA[/embed]
“The first one was on the power play,” he said when asked about his goals. “Just a shot from the point and it kinda found its way to me. I just tried to shoot it and, luckily, I caught my own rebound off a blocked shot and had an empty net there, so it was pretty easy to put in the back of the net.
“The second one was off an odd-man rush,” he continued. “I was thinking pass but the D kept backing off and I had a pretty good shooting lane, so I thought I’d just try to rip it and hope for the best, and luckily it went in.”
“A player with his skills has to be given the opportunity to do what he can do,” Ilves coach Tommi Niemelä about putting Svejkovsky on the power play in his first game, according to Jatkoika.fi. “He has many areas of strength, most of all with the puck. He’s a very good, compact skater.”
“It was great to have the opportunity to play right away on the power play,” said Svejkovsky. “I was just trying to produce and I managed to do that today. I’ll try to continue on the same path.”
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4BnCYPDO0[/embed]
Svejkovsky was born in Tampa, Fla while his father, Czech right winger Jaroslav Švejkovský, was playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The elder Švejkovský is now an assistant coach for the Vancouver Canucks.
The younger Svejkovsky, who says that he never uses the Czech version of his name with diacritics, grew up in the Vancouver area and played junior hockey for the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, Medicine Hat Tigers and Seattle Thunderbirds.
He was a fourth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2020 and spent time playing in the AHL for Wilkes/Barre Scranton as the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers before moving to the Tampa Bay organization.
This is Svejovsky’s first contract to play in Europe – it’s for the remainder of this season with an option for the 2025-26 season.
Svejkovsky doesn’t have much time to rest after his impressive debut. Ilves’ next game is Saturday night at home against JYP.
“Tomorrow I will be 100 percent ready again,” he said. “Now I just have to get a good sleep and have the same attitude for tomorrow.”