Jussi Ahokas’ Canadian connections run deep
Long before he joined the Kitchener Rangers, the coach was an aspiring goalie who came to Canada from Finland to chase his hockey dream. At 18, he got his shot — with a team named after a taco condiment
Jussi Ahokas’ Canadian connections go way back, to a time before he became the first European head coach in the Ontario Hockey League with the Kitchener Rangers.
Even decades before he guided Finland to a gold medal at the 2019 world junior hockey championships in Vancouver and Victoria.
In fact, he was just a kid when he met Perry Elderbroom, a goalie coach from Cornwall.
That meeting spawned a lifelong relationship with his “second home,” one that saw the aspiring goalie make annual trips to British Columbia to learn and teach the sport as a teenager and pursue a goal of playing hockey in Canada.
“I’ve never really lived anywhere but Finland and Canada,” said Ahokas.
Ahokas was eight years old when he first attended Elderbroom’s Gold in the Net goalie school in Forssa, Finland, about an hour and a half drive north from his hometown of Espoo.
“He was a tenacious worker,” said Elderbroom, who founded the hockey school, which is based on Vancouver Island.
“Even as a young child he was very accountable. He always took everything serious.”
And he kept coming back. First to satellite camps in Finland and, later, to summer sessions in British Columbia, where he worked his way up to join the staff.
“He was the longest-running student and instructor,” said Elderbroom, who figures Ahokas was involved with his school for 17 years.
Ahokas wanted to travel and see the world. He wanted to get better at hockey and share his knowledge. But he also wanted to land a gig in the crease on a junior hockey team.
In 1998, he got his shot with the Victoria Salsa — a team named after a taco condiment.
“I wasn’t that good,” said the 43-year-old. “But it was a great experience for me.”
Ahokas first latched on with the Peninsula Panthers, a Jr. B club in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League. But the North Saanich bunch was affiliated with the big-city Salsa, a Jr. A team that played in the higher British Columbia Hockey League, and worked closely with the squad.
The Salsa was owned by the Kowalko family, who ran every Taco Time restaurant on the island. The team’s logo was a green chili pepper. Some locals thought it looked like a pickle.
“I practised with them the whole year,” recalled Ahokas. “I lived with great billets. I went to school and had friends. It was a great city.
“I remember I could only call my parents in Finland once a month because it was so expensive. At that time, you still wrote letters home.”
It was an interesting time for the Salsa.
Four years earlier, Victoria lost its beloved Cougars when the Western Hockey League team moved to Prince George.
The city was still reeling and took time to embrace the new club.
The team played in nearby Esquimalt, home to the Pacific Fleet of the Royal Canadian Navy, during Ahokas’ time, due to an ongoing debate about the viability of the aging Victoria Memorial Arena.
Esquimalt’s 1,500-seat Archie Browning Sports Centre was much smaller, but the vocal fan base made the barn brutal on foes.
Veteran goalie Mike Fraser remembers Ahokas, who was two years his junior, well. He’d often drive the curious Finn to school or home from practice.
“He really fit in well with the guys,” recalled Fraser, now the assistant general manager for the WHL’s Everett Silvertips. “He was 18 years old and wasn’t guaranteed anything. But he worked hard, and he never complained about anything.”
Fraser and fellow netminder Travis Harrington were regulars for the Salsa, but that didn’t stop Ahokas from coming out.
The dedication impressed coach Campbell Blair.
“His desire to play and competitive nature as a goalie are the biggest things I remember,” said Blair, now a deputy sheriff in Washington County, Minnesota.
Victoria was in the middle of the pack in the 14-team BCHL loop in 1998-99. So, it was tough to get rookies in the lineup.
But Ahokas was rewarded for his patience and received his sole start in the final game of the regular season on the road against the Powell River Kings.
“He was excited,” recalled Blair, who rested some regulars for the tilt with the playoffs looming.
Ahokas allowed five goals on 30 shots.
“Jussi went in and gave us a chance to win the game,” said Blair. “Unfortunately for him, we lost. He appreciated the opportunity to play and had fun with it.”
The Salsa wanted to sign Ahokas the following season, but he opted to chase his pro dream in Finland. A few years later, he shifted his focus to coaching.
Fraser and Blair lost touch with their Finnish friend but did a double-take when they saw him on TV coaching his country’s Under-20 team to a gold medal at the 2019 world junior hockey championships.
“I remember thinking ‘Geez, I coached that guy,’” said Blair. “I think he’s done a great job. I’m proud of him.”
Fraser sent a congratulatory text to Ahokas after the gold medal victory and has followed his career from afar ever since.
“One thing I remember is that he was a real passionate guy,” Fraser said. “He really wanted to learn and get better.”
Gold in the Net is still going strong and counts former NHL goalies Henrik Lundqvist and Antero Niittymaki, among others, as alumni.
Elderbroom remains good friends with Ahokas and has lobbied on his behalf to get a job in the WHL over the years, so he was elated to see the Rangers hire him this past summer.
“I won’t be surprised if he gets a nod to move up to the NHL one day,” said the 64-year-old Elderbroom.
“I’m sure there are teams watching him.”
As for Ahokas, he looks back at his early years in Canada with fondness.
“You grow up when you live abroad,” he said.