Antero Niittymaki
Antero Niittymaki
Antero Pertti Elias Niittymäkiis a Finnish former professional ice hockey goaltender who last played for TPS of the SM-liiga. He additionally played in the National Hockey Leaguewith the Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning and San Jose Sharks. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, while playing for Team Finland, he was voted the Most Valuable Playerof the entire ice hockey tournament...
beginning nervous players supportive
I was not nervous at the beginning of this tournament. I didn't know what to expect, but my players have been so supportive of me.
bad goes player rebound step stop team
You just want to play well and rebound well after a bad game. Sometimes a team doesn't play that well and a goalie has to step up. If a player makes a mistake, the goalie has to stop (the shot). And it goes the other way around.
affect best lose maybe played player surprised
Maybe when you lose the best player in the world it does affect you. I was a little surprised at the way they played after that.
against best fun great honor players
If I am, it's a great honor and it's going to be a fun tournament. It's going to be great and it's going to be fun to play against the best players in the world.
feels few games good mind wins
Feels good to get 20 wins the first year. We still have games left, and I wouldn't mind having a few more.
everybody felt knows won
Everybody knows he's been a little sore. It happens, it's not a big deal. We've won without him before so we felt pretty confident.
hard stay work
There?s nothing you can really do, just work hard and stay ready.
chance playing time worry
Whoever's playing has to play good, I guess. Every time I get a chance to play I have to do my best. That's the only thing I can do and worry about.
couple feels games mind
It feels good, 20 wins, still some games left. I wouldn't mind a couple more. I really didn't think about it (20 wins). I didn't know how many games I was going to play. Didn't know what to expect.
couple easy guys held knew running shoot stayed
I think he was running out of speed. He knew a couple of our guys were coming, and he had to shoot the puck. I read that, stayed there and held my crease. It was actually a pretty easy save.
move tried trying watching worked
I think he was trying to make a move and he was watching the puck. I tried something new and it worked well.
defense good played tonight
We have a very good defense and tonight we played very strong.
hardest work
Those aren't the hardest saves. We work on breakaways every day in practice.
faced shots stopped
Burke faced more shots than I did. He stopped them.