Finland men's national ice hockey team

The Finnish men's national ice hockey team, nickname ''Leijonat / Lejonen'' ("The Lions" in Finnish and Swedish), as it is called in Finland, is governed by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Finland is one of the most successful national ice hockey teams in the world and a member of the so-called " Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, the United States, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Sweden.

Finland won the world championship in 2022, their fourth after 1995, 2011 and 2019. A duo of silver medals ( 1988, 2006) remained the country's best Olympic results until winning gold in 2022. At the Canada/World Cup, their best achievement is also a silver medal which they won in 2004. The Finns achieved a breakthrough in 2022, winning their first ever Olympic gold after defeating ROC.

History

Finland's first appearance in an elite ice hockey competition was at 1939 Ice Hockey World Championships in Switzerland. The result was shared last place with Yugoslavia. 10 years later, Finland came to 1949 Ice Hockey World Championships at Sweden. The Finns finished 7th place by winning the Consolation Round. Finland's first appearance at the Winter Olympics occurred in 1952 in Oslo.

In the 1974 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships two players were suspended for doping. They were the Swede Ulf Nilsson and the Finn Stig Wetzell who failed a drug test for the forbidden substance ephedrine. Both players were suspended for the rest of the tournament. Nilsson failed the test after Sweden's game against Poland, which Sweden won 4–1. The game was awarded to Poland as a 5–0 forfeit. The Finn, Wetzell, failed the test after Finland's match against Czechoslovakia, which Finland won 5–2, which was also awarded to Czechoslovakia as a 5–0 forfeit. The Finns were able to defeat Czechoslovakia again on the last day, which would have earned their first medal in history, if not for the points lost in the forfeited win.

Finland was close again to winning the first medal of its history in the 1986 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, when it led 4–2 in the final minute of the medal round match against Sweden. However, in the last minute of the match Anders "Masken" Carlsson first narrowed the goal to the end and even leveled the match with the help of the Finns' mistake. The match finally ended in a 4–4 draw, Finland's ranking in the tournament was fourth place.

At the 1988 Winter Olympics, Finland secured its first elite competition medal by winning silver. In the round-robin tournament of that time, the Soviet Union had already secured the olympic gold before their last game against Finland, while Sweden was on 2nd place. Finland had a certain bronze medal regardless of the outcome of the final game, but they managed to surprise everyone by beating the USSR 2–1, thus surpassing Sweden and gaining the silver medal.

At the 1992 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships, Finland's success and silver medal came as a surprise to many Finns, as the team was not expected to much because of inexperience and the lack of success at the ( 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics) in the same year. The medal achieved in the tournament was the first World Championship medal and the second value medal after ( 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics).

In the 1995 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, Finland achieved its first ever gold in international ice hockey. Finland reached the final with a 5–0 victory over France in the quarterfinals, and a 3–0 victory over the Czech Republic in the semi-finals. In the finals, the Finns faced off against their hockey rivals and host of the 1995 tournament, Sweden. In the first period of the final, left wing Ville Peltonen scored a natural hat trick, and then assisted on Timo Jutila's first period goal to give Finland a 4–0 lead, on the way to an eventual 4–1 victory.

At the 1998 Olympic men's ice hockey tournament, Team Finland came away with bronze, after defeating the Canadian national team 3–2. Teemu Selänne led the tournament in goals scored (4) and total points achieved (10). The tournament was the first in which players from the National Hockey League (NHL) were allowed to participate, allowing national teams to be constructed using the best possible talent from each country. The 1998 Olympic tournament therefore came to be known as the ''Tournament of the Century''.

At the 2006 IIHF World Championship, Finland achieved third place after winning the bronze medal game against Canada. Petteri Nummelin was named to the Media All-Star team.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Finland won a silver medal, coming close to winning in the final but losing 3–2 to Sweden. Finland's goaltender Antero Niittymäki was named the MVP of the tournament (only 8 goals against in the whole tournament) and Teemu Selänne was voted best forward. The format was changed from the 1998 and 2002 tournaments, to a format similar to the 1992 and 1994 tournaments. The number of teams was reduced from 14 to 12. The 12 teams were split into two groups in the preliminary stage, which followed a round robin format. Each team played the other teams in their group once. The top four teams from each group advanced to the quarter-finals.

At the 2007 IIHF World Championship, Finland lost the finals to the Canadian team. The final marked the second time that Finland and Canada met in the gold medal game of a World Championship, the first time being in 1994. However, only a year before, in 2006 Finland had defeated Canada 5–0 in the bronze medal game. In 2007, Canada were looking on form, being undefeated coming into the playoff round, while Finland had registered two losses in the run-up to the finals. Rick Nash scored on the powerplay at 6:10 into the first period on a one-timer from the point from a pass by Cory Murphy off of Matthew Lombardi, to put Canada up 1–0. Near the middle of the period, Eric Staal scored in similar fashion also on the powerplay, assisted by Justin Williams, and Mike Cammalleri. 9:11 into the second period, Colby Armstrong scored to give the Canadians a 3–0 lead. This goal ended up as the game winner. Finland had some discipline difficulty in the first two periods, taking 6 minutes apiece in penalties in both periods. Finland started to bring up the pressure in the last ten minutes, and Petri Kontiola scored a nice glove-side goal on Ward at 51:08 assisted by Ville Peltonen, to put the Finns on the board. With only 3 minutes left Antti Miettinen scored to bring Finland within one, 3–2. However, just one minute later Rick Nash scored on a skillful breakaway to put the game away, 4–2 final for team Canada. The Canadians were outshot 22–18, but the Canadian goaltender, Cam Ward, kept them in the game as he was solid between the pipes. They also were able to capitalize on the powerplay, which ended up being decisive in the Canadian win. Kari Lehtonen was voted Tournament's best goaltender.

At the 2008 IIHF World Championship, Finland achieved third place winning the bronze medal game 4–0 against rivals Sweden.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Finland came away with the bronze, winning 5–3 against Slovakia. During the tournament, Teemu Selänne became the all-time leader for points scored in the Olympics. He notched an assist in his second game of the tournament for 37 career points, surpassing Valeri Kharlamov of the Soviet Union, Vlastimil Bubník of Czechoslovakia, and Harry Watson of Canada.

At the 2011 IIHF World Championship, Finland won its second world title, beating the Swedish national team by a score of 6–1. As two highly ranked neighboring countries, Sweden and Finland have a long-running competitive tradition in ice hockey. Before the game, mainstream media in both countries titled the match "a dream final". After a goalless first period, Sweden opened the game with a 1–0 goal by Magnus Pääjärvi in the second period at 27:40. Seven seconds before the period's end, Finland's Jarkko Immonen scored to tie the game 1–1. Finland took the lead early in the third period, scoring two goals at 42:35 and 43:21 by Nokelainen and Kapanen. Sweden took a time-out before the last period's half but did not manage to regroup, and the tournament was decided by a clear 6–1 victory to Finland by Janne Pesonen's, Mika Pyörälä's and Pihlström goals. Team Finland's Jarkko Immonen led the tournament in both goals and points scored with 9 and 12 respectively.

The Finns won their third World Championship title at the 2019 IIHF World Championship in Slovakia, and after the cancelled tournament of 2020, they reached the finals in the 2021 tournament, losing to Canada in overtime.

At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Finland won the gold medal for the first time, going undefeated and beating the ROC in the final. This allowed them to rise to first place on the IIHF World Ranking for the first time. Later that year, Finland won their fourth World Championship, receiving their first medal on home ice.

Tournament record

Olympic Games

World Championship

Canada Cup / World Cup

Euro Hockey Tour

* 1996–97 – Finished in
* 1997–98 – Finished in
* 1998–99 – Finished in
* 1999–00 – Finished in
* 2000–01 – Finished in
* 2001–02 – Finished in
* 2002–03 – Finished in
* 2003–04 – Finished in
* 2004–05 – Finished in
* 2005–06 – Finished in
* 2006–07 – Finished in 4th place
* 2007–08 – Finished in
* 2008–09 – Finished in
* 2009–10 – Finished in
* 2010–11 – Finished in
* 2011–12 – Finished in
* 2012–13 – Finished in
* 2013–14 – Finished in
* 2014–15 – Finished in
* 2015–16 – Finished in
* 2016–17 – Finished in
* 2017–18 – Finished in
* 2018–19 – Finished in
* 2019–20 – Finished in
*2020–21 – Finished in 4th place
* 2021–22 – Finished in

EHT Medal table

Tournament summary

*Karjala Tournament:
** Gold medal ( 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2013, 2017)
** Silver medal ( 1995, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021)
** Bronze medal ( 2016, 2020)
* Channel One Cup / Izvestia Trophy:
** Gold medal ( 2003, 2009, 2021)
** Silver medal (1982, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2018)
** Bronze medal (1968, 1971, 1973, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019)
* Sweden Hockey Games:
** Gold medal (1997, 1999, 2000, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2018)
** Silver medal ( 2001 (February), 2006, 2008)
** Bronze medal ( 1991, 1998, 2001 (November), 2009, 2011, 2020, 2021)
* Czech Hockey Games:
** Gold medal ( 1996, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2012, 2013 (August) )
** Silver medal (1997, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2017, 2018, 2019)
** Bronze medal (2008, 2009 (April), 2009 (September), 2011, 2021)

Finland's Euro Hockey Tour (EHT) Cup medal table

As of the 2018 Channel One Cup:

Euro Hockey Challenge

* 2011 –
* 2012 –
*2013 –
*2014 –
* 2015 –
* 2016 –
* 2017 –
*2018 –

Other tournaments

* Deutschland Cup: Gold medal (1990)
* Nissan Cup: Gold medal (1989, 1994)
* Spengler Cup: Silver medal (1975)

Current roster

Roster for the 2022 IIHF World Championship.

Head coach: Jukka Jalonen

Uniform evolution

File:Finland national ice hockey team jerseys 1994 (WOG).png, 1994 Olympic jerseys
File:Finland national ice hockey team jerseys 1998-2004.png, IIHF jerseys 1998–2004
File:Finland national hockey team jerseys - 2010 Winter Olympics.png, 2010 Olympic jerseys
File:Finland national hockey team jerseys - 2014 Winter Olympics.png, 2014 Olympic jerseys
File:Finland national hockey team jerseys 2014.png, 2014–2017 IIHF jerseys
File:Finnish national team jerseys 2016 (WCH).png, 2016 World Cup of hockey jerseys
File:Finland national ice hockey team jerseys 2018 (WOG).png, 2018 Olympic jerseys
File:Finland national ice hockey team jerseys 2018 IHWC.png, 2018–2021 IIHF jerseys
File:Finland national ice hockey team jerseys 2022 (WOG).png, 2022 Olympic jerseys
File:Finland national ice hockey team jerseys 2022 IHWC.png, 2022– IIHF jerseys

Retired jerseys

Notable players

* Keijo Kuusela 1948–1952
* Aarne Honkavaara 1948–1952
* Unto Wiitala 1949–1957
*Teppo Rastio 1954–1962
* Raimo Kilpiö 1957–1967
* Heino Pulli 1958–1965
*Matti Keinonen 1962–1973
*Urpo Ylönen 1963–1978
*Lasse Oksanen 1964–1977
*Lalli Partinen 1965–1973
*Esa Peltonen 1967–1980
*Veli-Pekka Ketola 1968–1981
* Heikki Riihiranta 1970–1976
* Juhani Tamminen 1970–1982
* Pekka Rautakallio 1972–1983
*Matti Hagman 1975–1987
*Reijo Ruotsalainen 1978–1989
* Kari Eloranta 1979–1992
*Jari Kurri 1979–1998
* Hannu Kamppuri 1981–1987
*Ilkka Sinisalo 1981–1983
* Petri Skriko 1982–1992
*Christian Ruuttu 1984–1996
*Timo Jutila 1983–1997
* Raimo Helminen 1983–2008
*Timo Blomqvist 1985–1992
*Jukka Tammi 1985–1998
* Esa Tikkanen 1985–2000
*Markus Ketterer 1987–1996
* Jarmo Myllys 1987–2001
*Janne Ojanen 1987–2002
*Teppo Numminen 1987–2006
* Jyrki Lumme 1988–2002
*Mika Nieminen 1991–1998
* Teemu Selänne 1991–2014
*Jere Lehtinen 1992–2010
*Saku Koivu 1993–2010
* Sami Kapanen 1994–2010
*Ville Peltonen 1994–2012
*Ari Sulander 1995–2003
*Janne Niinimaa 1995–2009
* Petteri Nummelin 1995–2010
* Kimmo Timonen 1996–2014
*Olli Jokinen 1997–2014
*Jarkko Ruutu 1998–2010
*Jere Karalahti 1998–2014
* Miikka Kiprusoff 1999–2010
* Sami Salo 2001–2014
* Niklas Hagman 2002–2013
*Ville Nieminen 2002–2006
* Mikko Koivu 2003–2016
* Jussi Jokinen 2003–2016
* Tuomo Ruutu 2004–2015
* Pekka Rinne 2004–2016
* Tuukka Rask 2005–2016
* Antti Pihlström 2008–
* Leo Komarov 2009–
*Valtteri Filppula 2010–
*Mikael Granlund 2010–
* Teuvo Teräväinen 2012–
* Marko Anttila 2013–
*Aleksander Barkov Jr. 2013–
*Olli Määttä 2014–
*Erik Haula 2014–
*Juuse Saros 2014–
* Sebastian Aho 2015–
* Mikko Rantanen 2015–
*Patrik Laine 2016–
* Sakari Manninen 2018–
*Eeli Tolvanen 2018–
* Miro Heiskanen 2018–
* Kaapo Kakko 2019–
* Juho Olkinuora 2019–
* Anton Lundell 2021–

List of head coaches

* Erkki Saarinen 1939–1941
* Risto Lindroos 1945–1946
* Henry Kvist 1946–1949
*Risto Lindroos 1950–1954
* Aarne Honkavaara 1954–1959
* Joe Wirkkunen 1959–1960
*Derek Holmes 1960–1961
*Joe Wirkkunen 1961–1966
* Augustin "Gustav" Bubník 1966–1969
*Seppo Liitsola 1969–1972
*Len Lunde 1972–1973
*Kalevi Numminen 1973–1974
*Seppo Liitsola 1974–1976
* Lasse Heikkilä 1976–1977
*Kalevi Numminen 1977–1982
* Alpo Suhonen 1982–1986
*Rauno Korpi 1986–1987
*Pentti Matikainen 1987–1993
* Curt Lindström 1993–1997
* Hannu Aravirta 1997–2003
*Raimo Summanen 2003–2004
*Erkka Westerlund 2004–2007
*Doug Shedden 2007–2008
* Jukka Jalonen 2008–2013
*Erkka Westerlund 2013–2014
*Kari Jalonen 2014–2016
* Lauri Marjamäki 2016–18
* Jukka Jalonen 2018–

References

External links

*
IIHF profileNational Teams of Ice Hockey

{{Authority control

Ice hockey teams in Finland
National ice hockey teams in Europe