By The Associated Press

The two-week holiday break begins today in Finland's Elite League, but it's really not a hiatus, not by North American standards. While the nation's top circuit goes dark, allowing the Finnish national squad to practice and its prized amateurs to play in the world junior tourney, the pro teams will shift to full-workout mode, two-a-day practices that begin around 10 a.m. and wrap up at about 7 p.m. each day in Helsinki.

"They totally believe in it," said former University of Vermont goalie Tim Thomas, speaking by phone recently from Oulu, in far northern Finland, where he plays for Karpat. "Why do you suppose so many guys here want to be in the NHL? By comparison, it's a piece of cake."

Thomas, 27, signed to a Boston Bruins contract during the summer, hooked on with Oulu soon after the Bruins began the 2001-02 season with Byron Dafoe and Overland High School alumnus John Grahame splitting goaltending duties in Boston and prized prospect Andrew Raycroft the No. 1 goalie with their Providence farm team in the American Hockey League.

Recently back in the Oulu lineup after a minor knee operation, Thomas turned back 44 shots in a 5-3 win against Jokerit, the club that has turned out such NHL players as Teemu Selanne and Esa Tikkanen.

Thomas, invited to training camp without a contract, looked sensational in the NHL exhibition season, when the Bruins still were uncertain whether Dafoe could overcome his chronic knee problems. One-third of the way through the season, Dafoe looks like his old stable self.

"Of course I want to be in Boston," Thomas said. "But I'm here, and I'm playing and that's good for me and it's good for Boston -- they get to have all their goalies playing, somewhere."