Former Blade Wins Spengler Cup

[Scout]

Former Blade Wins Spengler Cup


Ryan Keller, a former Saskatoon Blade from 2001-2005, scored the game-winning goal in the final of the Spengler Cup today to lead Team Canada to victory over Russian team Salavat Yulaev Ufa.

The tournament, held annually in Davos, Switzerland, is the second oldest international ice hockey club team tournament in the world after the Stanley Cup playoffs. The tournament is played each year between Christmas and New Year’s Day and features 4 European club teams plus Team Canada. This is the 11th tournament championship for Team Canada since it began entering teams in 1984. Other prominent members of Team Canada included goaltender Curtis Joseph, defenseman Mark Giordano, and forward Travis Green, all former NHLers.

Keller, a native of Saskatoon, played 257 regular season games with the Blades scoring 120 goals to go along with 117 assists for 237 points. Since leaving the Blades, the soon-to-be 24-year-old has played in the American Hockey League with the Grand Rapids Griffins and Syracuse Crunch, in the United Hockey League with the Muskegon Fury, and this season in Finland with the Espoo Blues club team, where at this point he has 15 goals and 10 assists for 25 points in 31 games played.

During the Spengler Cup tournament, Keller had 3 goals and 2 assists in the 5 games played throughout the week.

Congratulations Ryan Keller and the rest of Team Canada! :clap: pbj :thumb: :thumb:

[hobster]

Good for Ryan he was one of my fav Blade players of all time he had the guts too ware number 39 as a Blade and he delivered well .

[nivek_wahs]

http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/sports/story.html?id=4e8cb0cd-3a4f-411f-80a8-a281d7316a0e


Spengler hero Keller has weak Finnish

Cory Wolfe, The StarPhoenix
Published: Friday, January 04, 2008

As a regular feature, StarPhoenix sports reporter Cory Wolfe gets personal with a sports figure. Today, Spengler Cup hero Ryan Keller gets cornered. The former Saskatoon Blade scored the game-winner in the final against Russian club team Salavat Yulaev Ufa.

The SP: Congratulations on netting the winning goal at the Spengler Cup. Where does that goal rank among your career highlights?

Keller: Well, it depends if you're talking about the significance of it or how it looked. (Laughs) For significance, it's the highest by leaps and bounds, but if you're talking about how pretty it was, it might be on the bottom end. It was awful. . . . The puck went off the D-man's stick and then started rolling and bouncing everywhere. It hit the back boards, then came out and hit the goalie's calf as he was trying to get back to the post. It maybe crossed the line by two inches. The guys on the team were saying, "What an ugly goal. Too bad it was televised. You can't tell everyone back home how nice it was."

The SP: (Laughs) Exactly. Well, Kirby Law also scored for Canada in the Spengler final. Did you remind him that you were a 10-year-old kid in the stands when he played with the Saskatoon Blades in the mid-'90s?

Keller: I didn't want to rub it in too much. (Former Brandon Wheat King) Marty Murray was my centreman, so we talked a little about the Western Hockey League. He was dating himself and laughing. But it was neat to play with guys like that. Then there's Travis Green, who's 38 or something. I've learned after a couple years of pro not to throw out dates and stuff, especially around older guys.

The SP: Speaking of older guys, how did you fare in practice showdowns against Canadian goaltender Curtis Joseph?

Keller: I actually did pretty good. That was one of the highlights and that gave me a little extra confidence going into the week. But the first shot I took, I think he was trying to show me where he's been because I tried to go high glove and I don't think he blinked. He just grabbed it and made it look pretty easy.

The SP: You were toiling in Finland with the Espoo Blues when you got the call from Team Canada. How were you received when you returned to your club team?

Keller: I was pretty lucky. Two other players from the Finnish league were on our Spengler team -- Andre Benoit and Mike Siklenka, who's from Meadow Lake. Their (club) teams weren't too excited about them leaving and I guess there were some nasty articles written about Benoit in his town (Tampere). But the support from my team was unbelievable. Everyone was excited and happy to get some exposure.

The SP: We know you've got finish, but how's your Finnish?

Keller: Awful. It has to be the hardest language in the world to learn. I know about four words and that's it. The same word can mean two different things if you put another word in front of it. The nice thing about being close to Helsinki is that everyone speaks some English.

The SP: Describe something about Finland that seems odd to a kid from westside Saskatoon.


Keller: In Canada, when you pass someone you'll give a nod. Or you'll hold the door for people. There's none of that here. It's not that they're rude; they're shy or something. They have a saying: "A normal Finn will stare at his feet; an outgoing Finn will stare at your feet."

The SP: (Laughs) Very funny. Have you had any run-ins with Finnish hockey royalty?

Keller: We live in what they say is the second-richest part of Finland. The ocean is right around the corner and Jari Kurri has a big waterfront home. We had our Christmas party last week at one of the fancier bars here. Kurri was at the table next to us. It was the Finnish national team's Christmas party. We drank with him for a bit and made small talk about hockey, Edmonton and Canadian winters. . . . . Another funny thing was, we went to see Bryan Adams in concert in Espoo. The first time I see Bryan Adams, a Canadian guy, and it's in Finland. We were at the rink on the day of the concert -- just taping sticks and stuff. The guys in his crew were talking, unaware that I could understand what they were saying because they thought I was Finnish. They were saying that hockey sticks made them feel like home, so I piped up and asked where home was. Sure enough, it was Saskatoon. They were nice enough to give me and my girlfriend tickets and we did the backstage thing.

The SP: You love your country music. Are you in withdrawal?

Keller: Thank God for the Internet and being able to burn CDs because you'd never find a country music station here.

The SP: Has living in Finland increased your appreciation of saunas?

Keller: It has. They have sauna parties here, so the team gets together and has some beer. You go in and out of the sauna and watch a big-screen TV. It's amazing how you go to the grocery stores here and they have all of the sauna utensils in the main aisles.

The SP: What would the fashion police say about Espoo's ad-plastered jerseys?

Keller: And the pants, too! You can't even see what colour the pants are. But the worst thing I've seen involves ads on the helmets. Espoo has Blade colours, blue and yellow, but we're sponsored by Arctic Cat so they make our goalies wear turquoise helmets. It has no connection to our jerseys and it looks awful.

The SP: (Laughs) Last question. You ended 2007 on such a high, what will you do for an encore in 2008?

Keller: Hopefully the same thing. It's hard to say where you'll be a year from now, but I'd love to go back (to the Spengler) and do it again. It was probably the best week of my life, hockey-wise. Hopefully, Hockey Canada gives me a chance, if I'm back in Europe next year, to do it all over again.

cwolfe@sp.canwest.com




© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008