Luke Lily junior review

[Retuperkele 21]

Luke Lily, also known as the northern ranger, started his hockey career at a very young age. Back when he used to live in Finland with his mother and father, before they moved to Estonia in order for his father to pursue a better engineering career, his father was very keen on hockey. They lived in Tampere, which is the city of many teams. Two of those play at a major level, and the third one is first or second division. At a local battle of the two major teams, Ilves and Tappara, which they went to see together with his father, made him fell in love with the game even more than he had in his PE classes. 

 

Straight after the game, Luke announced to his father with great excitement that he wants to be a professional hockey player. A proud father at that point decided to put his every thought and moment into starting his sons hockey career. First of the many questions was that which club he would like to represent, Ilves, Tappara or Koovee. Eventually, Luke went with Tappara since they won the clash of two major teams they went to see. Second one was which position, and he shouted "forward" - okay buddy, forward it is.

 

At first there werent many successful moments, Luke was taught to skate from the beginning and it did not go as well as planned. Being short tempered, Luke called quits many times - but his father did not let him quit. After many years of hard work and countless hours spent together at ice hockey rinks all across Finland, Luke was called to Tappara's under-18 team - at the age of 16. This was something out of the ordinary as the u-18 team would only consist of players in the age of 17 or 18.

 

Luke definitely took advantage of every moment he got with the team. He got stronger, faster and better in general. During his first year in the U-18 team he scored 29 goals in 41 games and collected 53 points for his team, made the first team selection and won the championship - this would happen yet again for two more years in the U-18 team, Luke scoring +20 goals in 40-45 games and winning the title every single time. Since he succeeded in the juniors, he was called to the mens team to play at professional level for Tappara, a dream come true for the young star.

 

During his first year in the highest division of mens hockey in Finland, he played in all of the games he could - this included friendlies and european championship series. Across all competitions he scored 34 goals and collected 59 points. He would go and win the title during his first year, but in the last game of the finals he got injured very severely. His head collided with the boards after a crosscheck and was rushed to the hospital due to the severity of the collision. He suffered a concussion, and would not play hockey for three years.

 

Now, after a year of training very hard, at the age of 25, he looks to pursue a career in the VHLM.