Oliver Kapanen is among the absolute Finnish success stories of the early NHL regular season days.

The 22-year-old from Kuopio, placed in the center of the Montreal Canadiens’ second line, has succeeded in scoring in both of his team’s games. These are also the first goals in the NHL for the forward who played 18 games in the league last season.

Kapanen praises the playing style created by head coach Martin St. Louis, which has been challenging for another Finnish forward on the team, Patrik Laine, to keep up with.

– Our playing style suits me, and getting the first goal out of the way quickly was a big deal. It didn’t happen last year, so it might have weighed on my subconscious a bit. I’ve always been a guy who scores goals in Europe. Now I want to do that here, Kapanen said to the media after the win against Detroit.

– Everything is going well, and I just want to keep going. I’m playing in a good line and just want to put the puck in the net, Kapanen praised his teammates, rookie forward Ivan Demidov and Alex Newhook, with whom the Finn has also been given responsibility on the penalty kill.

Kapanen also spent time in the SHL last season, where the young player scored an impressive 35 points (15+20) in 36 regular season games.

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