Finland’s Deputy Prime Minister Riika Purra was booed during the U18 World Cup in ice hockey

Finland won the match clearly and all was peace and joy.

Until the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Riikka Purra took her place on the ice.

Then she was booed by the crowd in the Espoo Metro arena.

Sweden got off to a tougher start at the U18 World Cup in ice hockey on Thursday.

It was all the better for the home team Finland, who defeated Latvia 3–1 in the opening match.

But one who had it about as tough as the Pennies was Finland’s Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, Riikka Purra.

After the match against Latvia, the 46-year-old entered the ice in the Espoo Metro arena to hand out prizes to the player of the match. Once there, however, Purra, who is part of the nationalist party Sannfinländarna, received a cool reception.

Large parts of the audience booed Purra during the performance on the ice and the award ceremony where goalkeepers Nils Maurins in Latvia and Petteri Rimpinen in Finland were awarded.

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Near horror injury

Purra has previously been in the limelight for several controversial statements and has previously been called for his resignation.

The match itself then? It included, among other things, a match penalty on the giant talent Aatos Koivu, son of the former great player Saku Koivu, as well as a scary situation where Aaron Kiviharju was hit by a skate rail but escaped without major injuries.

– The skate rail hit badly, but luckily I only needed to change my shirt. It was lucky that it didn’t hit five centimeters further forward on the neck, he says.

Finland meets Norway tonight in group A and Sweden faces Kazakhstan in group B on Saturday.