Nearly 4,500 miles separate Ames and the life Eero Helanto knew for the first 19 years of his existence.

His family, friends and hockey career before Cyclone Hockey all call Turku, Finland, home. But the first thing that he speaks about missing from his hometown isn’t the love of his family or the warmth of his own bed but rather the sauna in his home.

“Everybody has a sauna back home,” Eero said. “I usually went to the sauna every day.”

It’s easy to see why Eero enjoys the escape of the frigid Iowa temperatures, despite being a hockey player and growing up with “pretty much the same” weather in Turku as in Iowa.

He grew up on the southern coast of Finland and frequently traveled roughly 45 minutes to his family’s lake house, which currently serves as the wallpaper on the home screen of his cellphone.

Now, Eero waits in line at a dining center for another Finnish tradition. Finland consumes the highest amount of coffee per capita of any country in the world.

Eero orders his hot mocha with skim milk and whipped cream, which is the best part, Eero said. He spells out his name in his slight Finnish accent for the cashier in hopes of them finally getting it correct, although he says he doesn’t mind when people mispronounce it.

“E-R-O?” the lady taking his order asks.

“Two E’s,” he responds.

“That’s a cool name,” the worker said, smiling.

Eero — pronounced like “arrow” — is the name that caught the eye of the worker. But his last name, Helanto, is the one more likely to catch the eye of loyal Cyclone Hockey fans.

His older brother, Antti, led Cyclone Hockey in points scored last year and was named team MVP before graduating and heading back to Finland to play for his hometown team in Turku.

Antti, who is four years older than Eero, was the first member of the family who decided to play hockey at Iowa State after he spent a year in the junior leagues in Minnesota.

“I had always told him Iowa State is an excellent university, one of the best in the world, and that the hockey team is always good and competitive,” Antti wrote in an email from Finland.

Eero decided to skip playing in the junior leagues and come straight to Iowa State at 19 years old to play with his brother for the first time.

He started learning English when he was in third grade and watched a lot of shows that were in English but had Finnish subtitles.

“I thought my English was better than it was when I got here,” Eero said. “But I love hockey so much that I wanted to play somewhere.”

Antti would tell Eero to talk to him in English around their teammates, but Eero would often speak in Finnish, making his teammates suspicious.

“To make it even worse, Eero would occasionally out of the blue say somebody’s name,” Antti said. “Usually it was Chase Rey, which would drive him mad.”

It’s unlikely that anyone unfamiliar with Cyclone Hockey would walk past Eero waiting in line for his mocha, clad in red jeans, tan shoes and a gray winter hat covering up his bleached blond hair and think to themselves, “That guy has got to be a hockey player.”

Eero stands just 5 feet 6 inches tall, according to the team’s website, but that might be in his skates. Other websites have him listed under that height, but nobody in the Cyclone Hockey organization believes his size affects his play.

“I think that during his playing career people have judged him for his size,” said Cyclone Hockey coach Jason Fairman. “He’s one of our hardest, hardest hitters. I’ve rarely seen him get knocked off the puck.”

Eero thinks his frame is actually an advantage. He said the style of game he plays, using quickness and finesse combined with physicality, makes it hard for opponents to take him down.

“This is the size that I am, and I’m fine with that,” Eero said.

Despite his hard-hitting nature during games, he comes across differently off the ice.

“I would probably describe Eero as the nicest guy you’re ever going to meet,” said roommate and complete physical opposite Preston Blanek, who is a 6-foot-4-inch forward with dark hair and a thick beard.

Eero had eight points in 11 games before he was checked into the boards and felt the pain rush through his shoulder during a midweek game against Williston State on Oct 20.

Fairman decided to continue to play Eero despite resting many of the other key contributors — a move that was made out of respect to Eero’s streak of never missing a game during his Cyclone Hockey career. The injury ended up being a separated shoulder, and it kept Eero out for four weeks.

But this is a young man who left his native country, got on a plane for 24 hours and ended up in the middle of Iowa without a strong grasp of English. He’s also the guy who, despite being a foot shorter than some of the players he hits, continuously knocks them off their feet.

This injury wasn’t going to hold him back.

In his first weekend back on the ice, Eero scored two goals en route to helping Cyclone Hockey grab two road wins against a ranked opponent.

“It felt great,” Eero said. “I felt hungrier than the last time I was on the ice.”