Karpat Oulu opened this CHL season with a 2–0 shutout win over the Krefeld Pinguine, then beat the Vienna Capitals by the same score. Before today's Karpat–Krefeld rematch, goalie Karpat goalie Sami Aittokallio and Krefeld forward Daniel Pietta answered a few questions.
by Miikka Jarvenpaa
OULU – The Krefeld Pinguine flew up to northern Finland on Wednesday for Thursday night's CHL contest against Karpat Oulu. This morning, both teams took morning skates at Oulun Energia Areena in preparation for the game. After their respective practices, Karpat goalie Sami Aittokallio and Krefeld forward Daniel Pietta both answered some questions.
Tampere-born Aittokallio is a former junior player from local club Ilves, where he also played some Liiga games. He was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in 2010 and spent the last three seasons in North America, where he mostly played in the AHL but also got into 2 NHL games. This summer, the 23-year-old signed a two-year contract with Karpat. His first two CHL games have been nothing but perfect – back-to-back shutout wins over Krefeld and the Vienna Capitals. Tonight, Krefeld will take another crack at him.
Sami, home opener here in Raksila tonight. How are you feeling?
SA: “Really good, first game here in Oulu. Looking forward to see how many people attend and what the atmosphere in the arena is like. We've started the season pretty well and we are planning to contiune that.”
In your case. you have started perfectly – two games, two shutouts. The first one was against Krefeld, tonight's opponent. What do you remember from that encounter and what do you have to say about the Pinguine?
SA: “It was really loud there, which ignited us to play to the fullest right from the get go. And it was also the first game of the CHL, which is interesting since the opponents are different from those in Finland. They (Krefeld) have a really good team. They created some scoring chances but we played tight throughout the game, so there weren't that many great opportunities.”
You've seen quite a few different places already in your career. What do you think about the Karpat organization so far?
SA: “It's great. Karpat are a top-notch organization and everything is taken care of to the fullest. It was great to come here and I got into the the team right away. It was almost like coming home. It made it a lot easier to arrive here, when there was this kind of group behind everything.”
Krefeld's attempt to score on Aittokallio will be led by the veteran Pietta. Unlike Aittokallio, the 28-year-old Pietta has played all but one season of his career for his hometown club and he plans to be there a lot longer – in January he signed a 10-year contract, which virtually assures he'll spend the rest of his career with the club. Right now he's not thinking about the rest of his career, however. He's thinking about getting his team get past the CHL group stage, and picking up some points in Oulu would be a big help toward achieving that.
Welcome to Oulu, Daniel. How was your flight?
DP: “It was good, three and a half hours. We stopped at Helsinki and then came straight up here.”
You played against Karpat at home last Thursday. What do you have to say about them?
DP: “They are a quick team, good skaters. I think they're one of the favourites in the CHL but I think we did okay last week.”
What are you planning to improve from last week?
DP: “Obviously we want to score a goal, because without goals you can't win the game. I think if we play like last week, we give ourselves a chance to win.”