The fastest way from Winnipeg to “The Finnish Triangle” takes you south on the 59, across the United States border and into the rolling plains of Minnesota.



Outside the driver’s side window, canola turns to corn. The accent in roadside towns transforms from Friendly Manitoban in St. Malo to Minnesota Nice in Thief River Falls. Rest assured, as you keep pushing south, there are saunas and other Scandinavian cultural touchstones just a little ways down the road.



You have to ignore side roads that, navigated properly, could take you to Dustin Byfuglien’s hometown of Roseau or Tucker Poolman’s East Grand Forks. You won’t go as far as Blake Wheeler’s Plymouth, just outside of Minneapolis. Instead, just before you hit Erskine, you’re going to merge left onto U.S. Highway 2 as if you were going to Bemidji — Minnesota’s gorgeous lake country.



Maybe it’s all of these lakes that inspired The Finnish...