Montreal Canadiens' fans had four prospects to watch in the first day of the World Junior Championships, including Aatos Koivu and the youngster didn't disappoint.
While Michael Hage stole the show last night in Team Canada’s game, he wasn’t the only Montreal Canadiens’ prospect in action. LJ Mooney and Carlos Handel faced each other in the USA vs. Germany game, and Aatos Koivu was busy facing Denmark for Finland.
The 19-year-old was a third-round pick and the 70th overall selection in 2024, but wasn’t at the tournament last year after he was knocked out by mononucleosis and missed five weeks of action. Thankfully, he has been in tip-top shape this season, playing 30 games for TPS Turku, and he has caught his country’s eye.
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After settling for a silver medal last year in Canada after a heartbreaking overtime loss to Team USA in the gold medal game, the Fins won’t be short of motivation this time around, especially with so many players returning, including Petteri Rimpinen, whose 2.34 GAA and 93.3 save percentage earned him all-star team honours in 2025.
They opened their tournament on Friday with a match against Denmark, which they won dominantly, 6-2. They also put 43 shots on net while the Danes could only test the Finnish goaltender 10 times.
Koivu made the most of the 12 minutes and 35 seconds of ice time he got, taking four shots on goal and finding the back of the net once, to score his country’s fourth goal.
After a great start to the tournament, Koivu and co. will get some time to relax on Saturday since they have a day off, but they’ll be back in action on Sunday against Team Latvia. Their opponents will be playing on a second consecutive day, as they are set to face Canada on Saturday, their first game of the tournament.
In a tough Group B, Finland is competing against Canada and Czechia, two of the tournament’s heavy hitters. Needless to say, the Finns need to do great against the likes of Denmark and Latvia if they are to do as well or even better than they did last year.
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