They travelled 6,700 kilometres to get an up-close look at a national hero and the Winnipeg Jets made sure they weren’t disappointed.

A group of 13 fans from Finland were in attendance for Saturday’s practice at MTS Centre, where they watched their countrymen Patrik Laine and Joel Armia on the ice and then got a chance to meet the two young Jets stars.

They came to Winnipeg for a week, specifically to watch the Jets play the Minnesota Wild on Sunday and the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.

More specifically, they came to see Laine, who leads the NHL in rookie scoring despite being just 18 and has wowed fans around the league with his world class shot.

“You know how important he is here in Winnipeg? Multiply it by three,” said Jarkko Paloniemi, who hails from Laine’s hometown of Tampere.

“He’s really big there, a big star, and everybody is watching him.”

Paloniemi regularly stays up or gets up at 4 a.m., to watch Jets games on television in Finland. He and his friends like it when the Jets play afternoon games and they are on TV at 9 or 10 p.m. back home.

Laine, of course, was the second overall pick in the NHL draft last June after he helped Finland to a world junior gold medal, a silver medal at men’s world championship and helped Tappara win the Finnish Liiga title (he was playoff MVP).

All those things combined, plus his early success in the NHL — he has 33 goals and 60 points in his first 63 games — have put him into elite company with Finnish heroes Teemu Selanne and Jari Kurri in the eyes of the fans.

“He has developed so much,” Paloniemi said. “He’s so mature already.”

Of course, Finnish fans following a Winnipeg star from afar is nothing new.

Veli-Pekka Ketola and Heikki Riihiranta played for the WHA Jets in the 1970s and Teemu Selanne truly put Winnipeg on the map for Finns in the 1990s.

“Yeah, there are a lot of Jets fans,” Paloniemi said. “I would say as many as there was with Selanne.”

Laine has seen Finnish jerseys in the stands around the NHL throughout his rookie season but he said this is the first time such a large group has come to see him play.

“It’s nice that they came here to see me and (Armia) and it’s pretty cool to have them in the stands,” Laine said. “It’s always nice to see the Finnish fans.”

A reporter from Finland who has twice been to Winnipeg this season to cover Laine once said the young star often has his best games when people from his home country are in the stands.

“I think Patrik plays pretty well with people from any country in the building,” Jets coach Paul Maurice quipped.

Regardless of the fans, Maurice is expecting a better game from Laine than he had Thursday night in Brooklyn against the Islanders.

“He wouldn’t like his Islanders game,” Maurice said. “That’s one of the things I like most about Patty. He knows when he didn’t have it. Usually, he follows up with a real good performance.”

The Finnish fans will have more players than just Laine and Armia to watch on Sunday. Two of the Wild’s top three scorers are from Finland — Markus Grandlund and Mikko Koivu. They also have Finnish winger Erik Haula.

When the Flyers come to town, they’ll have Finnish veteran Valtteri Filppula in the lineup.

Regardless of how those games go, the Finnish fans are already loving their time in Winnipeg.

“It has gone perfectly,” Paloniemi said.

“Everything has been really great. It feels just like at home for us.

"(Laine and Armia) treated us really well. They are such humble guys and it was so nice to meet them.”

Twyman@postmedia.com