Tampereen Ilves, commonly known as Ilves, (; Finnish for "

Lynx A lynx ( ; : lynx or lynxes) is any of the four wikt:extant, extant species (the Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat) within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. The name originated in Middle Engl ...

") is a Finnish professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team based in

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

. They play in the

Liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mesti ...

at the Nokia Arena. Nokia Arenan avajaiset 14

The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

of the city of Tampere.

History

With sixteen championships, Ilves is the second most successful hockey team in the Finnish championship league, the

, after their local rival

Tappara Tappara (; Finnish language, Finnish for "Battle axe") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team playing in the SM-liiga. They play at ''Nokia Arena (Tampere), Nokia Arena'' in Tampere, Finland. The team has won 20 Finnish league championships, wh ...

. The club was founded in the spring of 1931, and it played its first game against Tampereen Palloilijat the next winter. In the late 1930s, Ilves won three Finnish championship titles as the first Tampere-based hockey team. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Ilves started playing its home games at the then new Koulukatu ice rink. It had another championship spree in 1945–1947 when it stayed undefeated for over four years (albeit playing only 36 games during that period). In 1954, Ilves was for the first and so far only time

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

to the second highest level of Finnish hockey but managed to return to the top tier only one year later. The current logo was designed by Rauno Broms in 1963. In 1965, Ilves moved, along with its local rivals

and KooVee, to the new Hakametsä arena, where they played until 2021. The last Finnish Cup competition in hockey was held in 1971. Ilves won the title and has therefore been the reigning champion since. In 1972, it also won another league championship; its 15th championship in total. During the late 1970s, Ilves went through lean times. Finally, when Koovee, which was in no better condition, was relegated at the end of the 1979–80 season, the two clubs decided to sign an agreement of cooperation. The best players of Koovee moved to Ilves, the most notable of them being

Risto Jalo Risto Uolevi Jalo (born July 18, 1962) is a Finnish retired professional ice hockey player and current general manager of Ilves in the Finnish Liiga. He played in the SM-liiga with KOOVEE, Ilves, and HPK between 1979 and 1998. He also played ...

. In 1985, Ilves claimed its 16th and most recent championship. Along with Risto Jalo, the key players of that team were

Raimo Helminen Raimo Ilmari Helminen (born 11 March 1964 in Tampere, Finland) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey player. He is often called "Raipe" or "Maestro" by his fans. He is the world record holder for most international games played by a hockey p ...

, Mikko Mäkelä, Ville Siren, and Jukka Tammi. Repeating this success proved difficult, however, when in the following summer four players left the team to play in the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

. In the late 1980s, Ilves had another brief stint of moderate success when coached by

Sakari Pietilä Sakari Pietilä (born 21 June 1954) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey player. Pietilä was a SM-liiga head coach with HPK for the 1995–96 SM-liiga season and Jokerit for the 1997–98 SM-liiga season. He was the head coach of the ...

. It finished first after the regular season in 1988 but was eliminated in the first round of playoffs. The next year it came away with a bronze medal, and finally in 1990 it reached the finals, only to lose to TPS. For most of the 1990s, the club struggled with financial problems and unclear issues concerning ownership. In sports performance, the low point was in the spring of 1995, when Ilves finished last in the SM-liiga and had to fight the lower league teams SaPKo and

SaiPa SAIPA (, ''SAIPA'') is an Iranian automaker headquartered in Tehran. The SAIPAC (an acronym for the French ''Société anonyme iranienne de production des automobiles Citroën'' lit. ''Iranian Limited Company for the Production of Citroën Autom ...

for their place among the elite for the next year. Ilves managed to avoid relegation and was promptly reborn as a viable championship candidate, reaching the semifinals in 1997 and the finals a year after that. The 2000s were a fairly mediocre period in Ilves history. After their bronze medal win in 2001, Ilves lost in the first round of the playoffs in six of the next seven seasons and missing the playoffs altogether in 2003. They managed to avoid relegation in 2010, 2012 and 2013.

Honors

SM-sarja

SM-sarja SM-Sarja was the top level of ice hockey in Finland from 1928 to 1975. SM-sarja is a common abbreviation for ''Suomen mestaruussarja'', "Finnish Championship Series". There was variable number of teams playing for the Finnish championship dur ...

Aaro Kivilinna memorial award Aaro may refer to: * Aaro (Shadow of the Eagle), a character portrayed by Mikko Leppilampi in the 2005 Finnish film ''Kaksipäisen kotkan varjossa'' * All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is an o ...

: 1936, 1937, 1938, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1952 * SM-sarja

Kanada-malja The Kanada-malja, or Poika (Literally "''Boy''" or "''Son''"), is an ice hockey club championship trophy, awarded annually to the winner of the Finnish SM-liiga playoffs. Kanada-malja is Finnish language, Finnish for "Canada Bowl"; the trophy is s ...

: 1957, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1966, 1972 * SM-sarja Aaro Kivilinna memorial award: 1935, 1948, 1949 * SM-sarja Kanada-malja: 1965, 1968, 1969, 1970 * SM-sarja Aaro Kivilinna memorial award: 1934, 1939, 1941, 1943 * SM-sarja Kanada-malja: 1963, 1964, 1967, 1974, 1975

SM-liiga

SM-liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mest ...

: 1985 * SM-liiga Kanada-malja: 1990, 1998 * SM-liiga Kanada-malja: 1983, 1989, 2001, 2022, 2023

Players

Current roster

Honored members

*2 Jarmo Wasama *7 Aarne Honkavaara *13

*14

Lasse Oksanen Lasse Kalevi Oksanen (born December 7, 1942) is a retired professional ice hockey player who mostly played in the SM-liiga. He played for Ilves. Oksanen played 23 years as a professional ice hockey player and ended his career in 1983, with the F ...

*16 Jorma Peltonen, Marianne Ihalainen *30 Jukka Tammi *41

Source: Ilves-Historia Number 24 has not been officially retired, but is not in use. It was last worn by Veikko Suominen, who died during the 1978–79 season.

Coaches

Current staff

* Head Coach: Tommi Niemelä * Assistant Coach: Joonas Tanska * Assistant Coach: Pasi Saarinen * Assistant Coach: Jarkko Näppilä * Goaltending Coach: Markus Korhonen * Team Manager: Timo Peltomaa

All-time head coaches

* Niilo Tammisalo 1931–37 * Risto Lindroos 1937–46, 1949–53 * Aarne Honkavaara 1952–61, 1967–68 * Henry Kvist 1946–49 * Seppo Helle 1961–64 *

Rauli Virtanen Rauli Virtanen (born 28 June 1948) is a Finnish writer, freelance journalist, lecturer and television producer. He has covered wars and conflicts since the days of Vietnam, and may be the first person to have visited all the countries in the world ...

1964–65 *

Erkki Koiso Erkki Antero Koiso (April 13, 1934 in Tampere, Finland – July 9, 2000) was a professional ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice ...

1965–66 * Raimo Vasama 1968–71, 1972–75 * Juhani Ruusunen 1971–72, 1976–80 * Len Lunde 1972–73 * Matti Reunamäki 1974–75 * Esko Mäkinen 1974–76 * Raimo Määttänen 1980–82 * Seppo Hiitelä 1982–87, 1990–91 * Matti Kaario 1986–87, 1990–91, 1999* *

1987–90, 2006–2009 * Anatoli Bogdanov 1991–93 * Jukka Jalonen 1992–95 * Heikki Vesala 1994–95 * Vladimir Jursinov Jr. 1995–99 * Heikki Mälkiä 1999–2001, 2009–10* * Ari-Pekka Selin 2001–03 * Teijo Räsänen 2002–03 * Vaclav Sykora 2003–05 * Curt Lindström 2004–05 * Kari Eloranta 2005–06 * Petteri Hirvonen 2006* *

2006–09 * Juha Pajuoja 2010–12* * Seppo Hiitelä 2011–12 *

2012–2013 * Tuomas Tuokkola 2013–2016 January * Kari Heikkilä 2016 January–March * Kari Kivi 2017–2020 September * Jouko Myrrä 2020 October–2022 October * Antti Pennanen 2022 October–2024 March * Tommi Niemelä 2024 May-present File:Ilveksen mestaruusjoukkue vuodelta 1938.jpg, (1938) File:Tampereen Ilveksen joukkue helmikuussa 1945.jpg, (1945) File:Suomen mestari 1946 Ilves.jpg, (1946) File:Suomen mestari 1958 Ilves.jpg, (1958) File:Suomen mestari 1960 Ilves.jpg, (1960) File:Suomen mestari 1966 Ilves.jpg, (1966) File:Ilves champion of Finland 1972.jpg, (1972) File:Ali Saadetdin Ilves.jpg, Ali Saadetdin, Finnish Tatar File:Ilveksen Jorma Peltonen.jpg, Jorma Peltonen File:Helminen Raimo Vintage Jersey.jpg,

File:Hulkkonen Antti Ilves 2009 1.jpg, Antti Hulkkonen File:Tampereen Ilves vs Stavanger Oilers.jpg, (2022)

Other sports

In addition to hockey and football, Ilves has a

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

team in Finnish league which has won the Finnish championship five times (2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2011) and the cup competition twice (2006, 2010), a

floorball Floorball (also known by other names) is a sport played with five players and a goalkeeper in each team. It is played indoors with sticks and a hollow plastic ball with holes. Matches are played in three periods. The sport of bandy also playe ...

team at second highest level and a

ringette Ringette is a winter team sport played on an ice rink using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. While the sport was originally created exclusively for female c ...

team competing in the SM Ringette league. It has numerous boys' and girls' junior teams in ice hockey, soccer, floorball (boys only), and ringette (girls only), making the organization the largest sports club in Finland. In the past, Ilves has also competed in

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

, and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

. It has won a bronze medal in American football and a silver one in handball. Also, Ilves has won the Finnish Cup in handball.

References

External links

* {{Liiga Sport in Tampere Liiga teams Ice hockey clubs established in 1931 1931 establishments in Finland