Sports fans are no strangers to filling the streets in celebratory fashion following a team’s victory.
Just last night, in fact, we saw Toronto Raptors’ fans flood the downtown core to celebrate the team’s first finals berth in team history.
They’re chanting “O Canada” in the streets of Toronto! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦#WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/6ICkvbM6OE
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) May 26, 2019
Despite thousands of fans celebrating in the streets after the @Raptors defeated the Bucks, Toronto police confirmed that no arrests were made following the team’s historic win. #WeTheNorth #WeTheNBAEasternChamps https://t.co/a89pOu5tAf pic.twitter.com/y1OwFunWQ4
— CityNews Toronto (@CityNews) May 26, 2019
Toronto Streets right NOW!! #WeTheNorth Let’s Go Raptors !! Proud of this team. pic.twitter.com/sKzejFNrOX
— JP ♛ (@TheJPro) May 26, 2019
The streets of Toronto are going CRAZY! 🎉pic.twitter.com/yKJnE5CP9d
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 26, 2019
Today, in stunningly similar fashion, hockey fans in Helsinki, Finland, flooded the streets to celebrate their team’s Gold medal victory over the Canadians in the IIHF Worlds.
Helsinki, and all of Finland I believe, has gone crazy! 3rd world champions in history for Finland! #torille #IIHFWorlds #CANFIN #worldchampions #icehockey #Finland #Leijonat #gold 🏒🥇🇫🇮 pic.twitter.com/yVRPG8kCLW
— Juho Ruohola (@aliquisnj) May 26, 2019
And the fans go wild as #Finland @Leijonat wins the ice hockey World Championships! If you're not at the #Helsinki market square, this is how insane it is with THOUSANDS of fans at 1am on Monday morning! 🇫🇮🦁 #leijonat #mmkisat #MM2019 #IIHFWorlds #suomi pic.twitter.com/KzsBYiZR76
— David Mac Dougall (@davidmacdougall) May 26, 2019
It’s midnight in Finland and this is the scene in Helsinki right now. #letsgotomarketplace pic.twitter.com/gedi2wSSLX
— Sami Hoffrén (@shoffren) May 26, 2019
here to tell you that helsinki has lost: it pic.twitter.com/mjHuFVxUZg
— e (@vcrelsa) May 26, 2019
So this is happening in Helsinki right now pic.twitter.com/orwnnGWXBq
— šüçk my ŧœ (@chertomatoe) May 26, 2019
helsinki is MAD right now pic.twitter.com/x4gRf3Kah3
— ▼ Vida Starčević (@vidaisonline) May 26, 2019
Pretty similar, huh? Except for, you know, the whole swimming in the fountain thing. Lake Ontario is still a little nippy for that.
The hype is definitely well-deserved, after Finland managed to dominate Sweden, Russia, and Canada in the medal round, who all had rosters that bolstered exponentially more NHL talent than their own. The Gold is only the third in the country’s history in the tournament.
The win was a hard-fought and gritty one that definitely deserves a good street party.
