After recovering from a knee-injury, Lukko Rauma defenceman Juha Tommila is now starting to get up to stride in the Finnish Liiga and the Champions Hockey League, and he helped his team advance to the quarter-finals.

by Miro Perhe

RAUMA – It's been a frustrating start to the season for young Lukko Rauma defenceman Juha Tommila, who has had to battle back from a knee injury. His first two Champions Hockey League games were the two eighth-final games against TPS Turku, and he contributed an assist in each game. The first game was a big 5–1 road victory for his team, but they lost the second one 4–3 at home after falling behind early. Fortunately for Tommila and his team, they had enough of a cushion that they won the series on aggregate to advance to the quarter-finals. 

What about your team’s performance today. Was it the game you wanted?
No, not even close. From the very start of the game, it was a very weak performance.

Do you think that result of the first game had an impact on your game?
We started the game 0–0 today. It would have been even worse game if we had thought that we didn’t need to play this game at all. Maybe it looked that way.

You were sidelined with a knee injury for a few weeks and now you're back in business. What is the status of your own game?
I still have work to do to get back to the top of my game, but today was decent. Just getting back and starting to play again helps a lot.

You looked in good form there in the first period when you sent Tadas Kumeliauskas flying with a hip-check. Tell us how it happened from your own perspective?
Kumeliauskas threw the puck in and started to go chase it and I put my backside in front of him. I think I timed it very nicely.

When was the last time you were able to throw a check like that?
That would’ve been the last time I played for the U20 team.

Lukko's U20 team is where you played one game after you were medically cleared to play. Do you think it was better to do that than jumping right in with the first team?
Sure. I got lots of ice time that game, and especially lots of chances to handle the puck. I was able to try different kinds of things on the ice than here. The good thing was that I had a place to play, it doesn’t matter where it is.

Lukko is very deep on defence and dressed eight defencemen this game. That can make it tough for a young player like yourself to get lots of ice time. How you keep yourself in tune when you don't know when you’ll get out there?
When you jump on the ice, don’t think too much and do those things that you’ve always done. If you start thinking too much about those things, you’ll surely fail. Just play.

Good luck in the quarter-finals!