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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 Mestis. The winner of the Liiga playoffs is awarded the Kanada-malja at the end of each season. Teams from the Liiga participate in the International Ice Hockey Federation, IIHF's annual Champions Hockey League (CHL), competing for the European Trophy. Participation is based on the strength of the various leagues in Europe (excluding the European/Asian Kontinental Hockey League). The Liiga was established in 1975 to replace the former SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur competition. The Liiga is not directly overseen by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, but the league and association have an Contract, agreement of cooperation. SM is a common abbreviation for ''Finnish Champion, Suomen mestaruus'', "Finnish Champion". History The SM ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naisten Liiga (ice Hockey)
The is the national premier league for women's ice hockey in Finland. Founded by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association as the Naisten Suomen mestaruus, SM-sarja (NSMs; ) in 1982, it was known as the Naisten Liiga (NSML;) from 2017 until being rebranded as Auroraliiga in 2024. The league comprises approximately 225 players across nine teams. Kiekko-Espoo Naiset, Kiekko-Espoo has been the dominating force of the Auroraliiga in the 21st century, winning seventeen Finnish Championships from 1999 to 2025. Ilves Naiset, Tampereen Ilves is the second most successful club in the league's history, with ten championship titles. Ilves are the only organization to have iced a team in every season since the league's inception. A majority of teams in Auroraliiga share their names with men's professional teams in the Liiga or Mestis – HIFK (ice hockey), HIFK, HPK, Ilves, KalPa, Kiekko-Espoo, Oulun Kärpät, Kärpät, Lukko, RoKi, HC TPS, TPS – but the women's teams have historically received ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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, which makes them the most successful club in Finland. The team continued the traditions of the Tammerfors Bollklub. History Early days and the transition from TBK to Tappara The predecessor of Tappara TBK (Tammerfors Bollklubb) was established in 1932 by the Tampere Swedish School (Tampereen Ruotsalainen Yhteiskoulu) as its own sports club. After winning the Finnish championship in 1953, 1954 and 1955. In 1955, the TBK Ice-hockey department founded Tappara as its new club to make it more accessible to non-Swedish locals and give it opportunity to grow as a club, at the same time the Ice-Hockey division of TBK stopped as an ice hockey club at the highest competitive level. Most of the players transferred from TBK to Tappara. Tappara used TBK ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiekko-Espoo
Kiekko-Espoo is a Finnish professional ice hockey club founded in 2018 as a continuation of the Kiekko-Espoo team originally founded in 1984. Kiekko-Espoo men's team plays in the Liiga, where they were promoted for the 2024–25 Liiga season, 2024–25 season, and the Kiekko-Espoo Naiset, women's team plays in the Auroraliiga, where they hold the most championships of any club. Kiekko-Espoo's junior teams play at national league levels in U16, U18 and U20 juniors. The junior teams of Espoo Blues and Kiekko-Espoo played under Kiekko-Espoo Juniorit ry until 2014. In 2017, and , which split from the Espoo Blues junior organization, launched their own junior representative team and founded Kiekko-Espoo ry. The team plays in U16, U18 and U20 junior leagues under the name Kiekko-Espoo. When Espoo United (ice hockey), Espoo United collapsed in the spring of 2018, the organization decided to also establish a representative team for adults in Kiekko-Espoo. It started playing in the 2018 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2024–25 Liiga Season
The 2024–25 Liiga season is the 50th season of the Liiga, the top level of Finnish ice hockey since 1975. The Liiga expanded to 16 teams for the season with the addition of Kiekko-Espoo. The league also brought back the relegation to the Mestis and a reformed playoff system and new divisions that decide the number of games teams play against each other. Format The regular season started in September 2024. Due to the addition of Kiekko-Espoo, the previous amount of 450 matches was increased to 480 matches total in the regular season. Each team played 60 matches, and all teams were divided into four groups. As usual, the series was on break in November for a week and a half while the national teams played in the Euro Hockey Tour. The Christmas break lasted 5–7 days, depending on the team, with the exception of Kärpät, which participated on the 26th–31 December in the Spengler Cup in Switzerland. For other teams, the Christmas break ended on Saint Stephen's day, 26 Decemb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
KalPa
Kalevan Pallo (KalPa) is a professional ice hockey team which competes in the Finnish Liiga. They play in Kuopio, Finland at the Niiralan monttu, Olvi Areena. Team history Established in 1929 as ''Sortavalan Palloseura'' in Sortavala, the club relocated to Kuopio in 1945 after its original hometown had been annexed by the Soviet Union. During its Sortavala years, the club was not active in ice hockey, but competed in association football, bandy, and pesäpallo instead. Ice hockey was introduced in 1947, and in 1956 KalPa officially replaced the more traditional Kuopio club KuPS in that sport thus specializing in hockey – minor league football was still continued until 1974 as a farm team of sorts for KuPS. The full name of the company that runs the representative team today is ''KalPa Hockey Oy''. The majority of the company is owned by former National Hockey League, NHL players Sami Kapanen and Kimmo Timonen. Kapanen is the majority owner, controlling 50.5% of the franchise. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finnish Champion
In Finland, the (SM; ) is the winner of the highest level of national competition in a particular sport. (), abbreviated , is the competition in which the winning athlete, team, or club is named Finnish Champion. is commonly used when discussing the highest-level league of a sport that competes for the Finnish Championship or the specific competition in which a Finnish Champion is named, as with the Baseballin SM-sarja, Ringeten SM-sarja, Rugbyn SM-sarja, etc. The abbreviation ( from ) is a standard term used when a sport has been designated with status. Without qualification, can refer to any Finnish Championship , however, it is most often used when discussing the men's ice hockey Liiga – . Both the URL and the menu for the sports (''urheilu'') section use “SM-liiga” to link to the main page for 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 compr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HIFK (ice Hockey)
HIFK (a traditional abbreviation of the Swedish name Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors, English: "Sporting Society Comrades, Helsinki") is a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland that plays in the SM-liiga, the sport's top-level league in Finland. The team plays at Helsinki Ice Hall. History IFK Helsingfors was founded in 1897 and started participating in ice hockey in 1928. Since then, HIFK has won the Finnish national championship seven times, of which three (1969, 1970, 1974) were in SM-sarja and four (1980, 1983, 1998, 2011) were in the SM-liiga. HIFK has the highest number of audience in the SM-liiga and is one of the wealthiest sports clubs in Finland. One of the major influences to HIFK was the NHL veteran and Stanley Cup winner Carl Brewer (ice hockey), Carl Brewer. Hired in 1968 as a playing coach, he advocated a North American style of play which has persisted in HIFK since. Brewer's influence on the way ice hockey is played in Finland led to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalervo Kummola
Kalervo Juhani Kummola (born 21 November 1945) is a Finnish ice hockey executive, businessman, and politician. He co-founded the hockey club Kiekko-67 at age 21, was later marketing director for HC TPS, HC Turun Palloseura, and chief executive officer of the Liiga, SM-liiga. Becoming a board member of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 1975, he was elected vice-president in 1990, and served as president from 1997 to 2016. He helped organize multiple Ice Hockey World Championships, World Championships hosted in Finland, was an International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) vice-president from 2003 to 2021, and chairman of the Finnish Olympic Committee from 2005 to 2016. In business, Kummola co-founded the television production company VipVision, and was its chief executive officer from 1987 to 1999. He also served as chairman of the Tampere chamber of commerce, was the chief executive officer of the Tampere Hall entertainment and convention facility. In politics, he is a member of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1975–76 SM-liiga Season
The 1975–76 SM-liiga season was the inaugural season for the new top level series of ice hockey in Finland, SM-liiga., which replaced the SM-sarja (1928–1975) The season featured 10 teams who played 36 game regular season followed by playoffs for top 4 teams. Points were given as follows: 2 from win, 1 point from tie and 0 points from loss Regular season Regular season standings ''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, T = Ties, L = Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against'' Teams written in bold letters advance to playoffs. Regular season scoring leaders ''Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes'' Playoffs Semi finals *TPS Win Best of 3 Series 2-0. *Tappara win best of 3 Series 2-0. Bronze medal games Ässät win best of 3 Series 2-0 and the Bronze Medals for the 1975–76 SM-liiga season. Finals The finals took place on 18–19 March. TPS win the Best of 3 Series 2-0 and the 1975–76 SM-liig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 so named because it was donated by Finnish Canadian, Canada's Finnish community in 1950.A to Z Encyclopedia of Ice Hockey: Ka . Retrieved 26 August 2008. The Kanada-malja was originally given for the winner of the SM-sarja, but in 1975 when SM-liiga replaced the SM-sarja, the Kanada-malja has been given to the SM-liiga winner. In 1991 a copy of the Kanada-malja was made and the original was given for display at Suomen Jääkiekkomuseo ("Finnish Ice Hockey Museum"). After the final game, the champion team of the playoffs is presented with the original Kanada-mal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 during the time of SM-sarja. The lowest number of participating teams was during the 1934-35 SM-sarja season, 1935 SM-sarja season when there was 3 teams. The most common number of participating teams was 12. Since 1944-45 SM-sarja season there was relegations for lowest-ranking teams of each season. In the relegations the lowest-ranking teams either faced the winner of the Mestis, 1. Divisioona (1st Division) or was straightly relegated from SM-sarja. History The first SM-sarja season took place in 1928. The first championship was competed as a cup. Viipurin Reipas was the winning team and they became the first Finnish ice hockey champions. SM-sarja was cancelled in 1930 because of bad winter in Finland. SM-sarja was also cancelled in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mestis
Mestis (from , meaning 'Championship series', stylized as MEST1S) is the second-highest men's ice hockey league in Finland. The league was established by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2000 to replace the I-divisioona ('First Division'). Being promoted to SM-liiga is possible if a Mestis team beats a SM-liiga club in the qualification series and matches all the criteria set by the SM-liiga. Mestis, however, is an open league where relegation and promotion are possible with the 3rd league, Suomi-sarja. Mestis is also the highest league governed by the FIHA. History In the years 2000–2008, it was not practically possible for Mestis teams to get promoted to the SM-liiga, which was closed in 2000, but it was possible to drop down to the Suomi-sarja instead. However, KalPa was promoted to the SM-liiga in the spring of 2005, when the number of teams in the league was increased from 13 to 14 teams. For the 2008–2009 season, the SM-liiga qualifiers were brought bac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
