Finnish forward Tuomas Kiiskinen played for Donbass Donetsk in the KHL last season and played a game in Prague's Tipsport Arena that made league history. This season he returned to the arena in Växjö Lakers jersey. He also looks ahead to facing his youth club, KalPa Kuopio, in Group G's last two rounds.

by Karolina Antosoava

PRAGUE – As a member of Donbass Donetsk, Tuomas Kiiskinen's Donbass Donetsk club visited Tipsport Arena three times in 2013-14, with the last one being particularly memorable. In game two of the second-round playoff series between Donbass and Lev Prague, the game lasted 126 minutes and 14 seconds – the longest game in KHL history – before it was finally decided in Donbass's favour.

But after the end of the season, Kiiskinen and his Donbass teammates had to face an unpleasant situation – just a few weeks before training camp was set to open, he had to start looking for a new job. Finally he agreed to terms with the Växjö Lakers. As a member of the Swedish club he returned to Tipsport Arena to play against Sparta Prague in the Champions Hockey League.

So Tuomas, do you still remember the last time you played a game here in Tipsport Arena?

Yes, I remember. It was a good one. (smiling) We played a lot of tough games here last season, but that last one against Lev Prague in this arena in KHL playoffs was probably the hardest one

Were you at all afraid that something like that could happen again?

No, to play a game that long happens only once in your lifetime. But it really gets stuck in your memory and for me it’s a good memory from Prague.

After the end in playoffs your Donbass Donetsk team announced that they wouldn’t play in the KHL this season, so you suddenly lost your job. How hard a situation was that for you to find a new team?

It’s always something you have to think about – think about where to go and what to do with your career. I made a pretty good decision. I was lucky that Växjö were looking for a forward so I as able to join them.

But Donbass just froze the contracts of some players and plan to re-activate them for next season. Is this also your case and do you think it’ll possible to play in Ukraine again?

It’s my case too, I also have a contract with Donbass for another season. But I can’t say right now if I'll play there or not. It’s a really tough situation in Ukraine and you never know. So I just want to focus on this year. That’s all I can do.

Your return to Prague wasn't so memorable this season, as your team lost 5-4, and Sparta also won on Game Day 2 in Växjö. What’s the reason that Sparta was able to beat you twice? Were they better?

Yes, they were better. We had quite a few bad moments in the game and Sparta was able to capitalise on our mistakes. We played good only in some parts of the game. And that made the difference. Both games were pretty similar, both teams had good scoring chances and a lot of goals were scored. We had our chances too but didn’t play the whole 60 minutes. That’s what we need to work on.

You assisted on a goal that made it 5-3 with 12 minutes left in the third period. Did you still believe you could win the game at that point?

Of course, at that point we were getting stronger and stronger. There was still some time left and we believed we could score again and win the game. In the end it was a really tough and close game. We came back and it was a good thing for us but it still wasn’t enough.
What was the decisive moment of the game? Was it the penalty you took at the end?

I don’t think so. We took lot of penalties throughout the whole game and it wasn’t the last one which decided it. Obviously they scored better on their chances and we didn’t play the whole 60 minutes the way we had wanted.

The last two games you will play in group G will be against KalPa Kuopio, which was your youth club. How much are you looking forward to that?

I’m really looking forward to the game in Kuopio and playing against my former team. I’m going back to my hometown. Moreover it’ll be my first game against KalPa ever so it’ll be something absolutely new for me.

Have you already talked about those two games with anybody from Kuopio?

Yes, I have lot of friends there – on the team and in Kuopio too – so I’ve already talked with people from there. I know almost everybody on the current team so it’ll be fun to play against them. I hope KalPa’s fans still remember me.

They'll also be important games to win if you want to advance past the group stage. What do you need to focus on to win them?

Just get better as a whole team and play the full 60 minutes. There's a lot of stuff we need to do but we still have time to practice. But it’s hard to say what the strongest part of our game is when we don’t play all 60 minutes. We are a strong team so we need to focus on our team game.