Midweek Hovi Hit

The woman to the left? Not Venla Hovi. That woman in the picture is Finnish defender Ronja Savolainen, and the reason she's leading off this Venla Hovi piece is because I love the uniforms being worn by Finland at this year's Four Nations Cup. Specifically, I love these blue road uniforms sported by the Finns as the jerseys look and feel European with the logos and the sponsors on the sweater, and it feels out of place against the Canadian, American, and Swedish uniforms that we've seen in the tournament. Anyway, we're not here for jerseys. Let's move on.

Venla Hovi is playing for Finland at the Four Nations Cup this week, and she opened the scoring today against Sweden from what is quickly becoming her signature goal.

Hovi as the trailer swooped in on that rebound and unleashed the clap-bomb from the slot to rip it past Maria Omberg in the Sweden net. If you recall, Venla scored a similar goal against the Worcester Blades as the late entry into the zone where she hammered a puck past Mariah Fujimagari. It's great to see Venla doing well on the international stage this season, and here's hoping the Finns can pull an upset on the Americans to really shake things up. Yes, it's highly unlikely, but the US has lost to European teams before!

If Finland can get back some of their big guns who are battling a stomach virus, things should go better than they did against Canada. Hovi will need to be a big part of the offence for Finland if they hope to knock the Americans off, but she's never not risen to the challenge when given the opportunity. She'll give you everything she has in the tank, and that's why we love her here in Manitoba!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!