Jari "Japa" Levonen (Born: 23 August 1966) is a Finnish former 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 ...

winger and

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

. Levonen represented the Porin Ässät and the

Jokipojat Joensuun Kiekko-Pojat is a Finnish semi-professional ice hockey team that plays in the Mestis, the second-highest men's ice hockey league in Finland. The club has spent three seasons in the top flight of Finnish hockey, season 1971–72 in SM-sa ...

during his player career. He has won the golden Whistle award 15 times in the

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 ...

, being the best referee voted by players 15 times in a row between 2002 and 2017. He has also won the Unto Wiitala trophy seven times as the best referee in Finland decided by SM-liiga's referee coaching group. Levonen has the second most whistled games in the SM-liiga with 979, only behind Timo Favorin. Levonen retired in 2020, but has officiated in preseason games.

Playing career

Levonen played 459 matches in his SM-liiga career, which ended with an injury, all in the Porin Ässät. In his playing career, Levonen scored 101 goals and 89 assists. He sat in the penalty box for 691 minutes. In the playoffs, the corresponding statistics were 38 matches, 9 goals and 7 assists and 46 penalty minutes.

Referee career

In the spring of 2017, he was awarded the Golden Whistle for the fifteenth time in a row as the best referee voted by the players. In January 2019, Levonen refereed the 900th SM-liiga match of his career. He reached that mark as the second referee ever. The SM-liiga has awarded him with the Unto Wiitala award seven times. Levonen has officiated in the

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

and the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

IIHF World Championships.

Personal life

Levonen is related to former ice hockey players, Rauli Levonen, Jarno Levonen, Toni Levonen, Ari-Pekka Levonen, Jarkko Levonen, Jyrki Levonen and Harri Levonen. Levonen is married to politician Mari Kaunistola. Jari Levonen got an invite to the Independence Day Reception at the

Presidential palace A presidential palace is the official residence of the president in some countries. Some presidential palaces were once the official residences to monarchs in former monarchies that were preserved during those states' transition into republics. ...

on the Finnish independence day on the 6th of December 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levonen, Jari 1966 births Living people