Finland men's national ice hockey team

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Finland
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)Leijonat / Lejonen
(The Lions)
AssociationFinnish Ice Hockey Association
General managerJere Lehtinen
Head coachLauri Marjamäki
AssistantsWaltteri Immonen
Kalle Kaskinen
Teppo Numminen
CaptainMikko Koivu
Most gamesRaimo Helminen (331)
Most pointsRaimo Helminen (207)
IIHF codeFIN
Ranking
Current IIHF3 Increase1
Highest IIHF2 (first in 2011)
Lowest IIHF7 (2005)
First international
 Sweden 8–1 Finland 
(Helsinki, Finland; 29 January 1928)
Biggest win
 Finland 20–1 Norway 
(Hämeenlinna, Finland; 12 March 1947)
Biggest defeat
 Canada 24–0 Finland 
(Oslo, Norway; 3 March 1958)
IIHF World Championships
Appearances56 (first in 1939)
Best result Gold: 2 – 1995, 2011
Canada Cup / World Cup
Appearances6
Best result Runner-up (2004)
Olympics
Appearances14 (first in 1952)
Medals Silver (1988, 2006)
Bronze (1994, 1998, 2010, 2014)

The Finnish men's national ice hockey team, or Leijonat / Lejonen (The Lions in Finnish and Swedish), as it is called in Finland, is governed by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Finland is considered a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, the Czech Republic, Russia, Sweden and the United States.[1]

Recent history

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 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic in the semifinals. 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 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 professional 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". Unlike previous Olympics where athletes could choose five-star hotel accommodations (such as the USA Men's Basketball team), NHL players were required to stay in the Olympic Village like other athletes.

At the 2006 IIHF World Championship, Finland achieved 3rd place winning the Bronze medal game against Canada. Petteri Nummelin was named to the Media All-Star team.

In the 2006 Winter Olympics, Finland won a Silver medal, coming close to winning in the final but losing 3–2 to the Swedish national team. 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 Canada's national team. The final marked the second time that Finland and Canada met in the final 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. Only with 3 minutes left Antti Miettinen scored to bring Finland within one, 3–2. However, only 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 3rd place winning the Bronze medal 4–0 against Sweden's national team.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Finland came away with 3rd place winning 5–3 against team Slovakia. During the tournament, Teemu Selänne of Finland became the all-time leader for points scored in the Olympics.[2][3] 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.[2][3]

At the 2011 IIHF World Championship, Finland won its second World Championship, 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".[4][5] 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.[6] Team Finland's Jarkko Immonen led the Tournament in both goals and points scored with 9 and 12 respectively.

In recent years, Finland has been consistently ranked among the best teams in international hockey. Currently the team is ranked 2nd with 3345 points in the IIHF World Ranking.

Tournament record

Medal record
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 1988 Calgary Team
Silver medal – second place 2006 Torino Team
Bronze medal – third place 1994 Lillehammer Team
Bronze medal – third place 1998 Nagano Team
Bronze medal – third place 2010 Vancouver Team
Bronze medal – third place 2014 Sochi Team
World Championship
Gold medal – first place 1995 Sweden
Gold medal – first place 2011 Slovakia
Silver medal – second place 1992 Czechoslovakia
Silver medal – second place 1994 Italy
Silver medal – second place 1998 Switzerland
Silver medal – second place 1999 Norway
Silver medal – second place 2001 Germany
Silver medal – second place 2007 Russia
Silver medal – second place 2014 Belarus
Silver medal – second place 2016 Russia
Bronze medal – third place 2000 Russia
Bronze medal – third place 2006 Latvia
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Canada

Team

Current roster

Roster for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Head coach: Lauri Marjamäki

No. Pos. Name Height Weight Birthdate Team
19 G Mikko Koskinen 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 95 kg (209 lb) (1988-07-18)July 18, 1988 (aged 28) Russia SKA Saint Petersburg
40 G Tuukka Rask 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 84 kg (185 lb) (1987-03-10)March 10, 1987 (aged 29) United States Boston Bruins
35 G Pekka Rinne 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 98 kg (216 lb) (1982-11-03)November 3, 1982 (aged 33) United States Nashville Predators
2 D Jyrki Jokipakka 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 98 kg (216 lb) (1991-08-20)August 20, 1991 (aged 25) Canada Calgary Flames
18 D Sami Lepistö 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 86 kg (190 lb) (1984-10-17)October 17, 1984 (aged 31) Russia Salavat Yulaev Ufa
7 D Esa Lindell 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 98 kg (216 lb) (1994-05-23)May 23, 1994 (aged 22) United States Dallas Stars
3 D Olli Määttä 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 93 kg (205 lb) (1994-08-22)August 22, 1994 (aged 22) United States Pittsburgh Penguins
22 D Ville Pokka 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 97 kg (214 lb) (1994-06-03)June 3, 1994 (aged 22) United States Chicago Blackhawks
55 D Rasmus Ristolainen 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 99 kg (218 lb) (1994-10-27)October 27, 1994 (aged 21) United States Buffalo Sabres
45 D Sami Vatanen 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in) 80 kg (180 lb) (1991-06-03)June 3, 1991 (aged 25) United States Anaheim Ducks
20 LW Sebastian Aho 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) 78 kg (172 lb) (1997-07-26)July 26, 1997 (aged 19) United States Carolina Hurricanes
91 C Aleksander Barkov 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 96 kg (212 lb) (1995-09-02)September 2, 1995 (aged 21) United States Florida Panthers
27 LW Joonas Donskoi 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 84 kg (185 lb) (1992-04-13)April 13, 1992 (aged 24) United States San Jose Sharks
51 C Valtteri Filppula (A) 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 88 kg (194 lb) (1984-03-20)March 20, 1984 (aged 32) United States Tampa Bay Lightning
64 LW Mikael Granlund 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) 84 kg (185 lb) (1992-02-26)February 26, 1992 (aged 24) United States Minnesota Wild
56 RW Erik Haula 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) 88 kg (194 lb) (1991-03-23)March 23, 1991 (aged 25) United States Minnesota Wild
36 LW Jussi Jokinen (A) 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 87 kg (192 lb) (1983-04-01)April 1, 1983 (aged 33) United States Florida Panthers
9 C Mikko Koivu (C) 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 101 kg (223 lb) (1983-03-12)March 12, 1983 (aged 33) United States Minnesota Wild
71 RW Leo Komarov 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) 90 kg (200 lb) (1987-01-23)January 23, 1987 (aged 29) Canada Toronto Maple Leafs
28 LW Lauri Korpikoski 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 93 kg (205 lb) (1986-07-28)July 28, 1986 (aged 30) Free Agent
29 RW Patrik Laine 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 95 kg (209 lb) (1998-04-19)April 19, 1998 (aged 18) Canada Winnipeg Jets
12 C Jori Lehterä 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 96 kg (212 lb) (1987-12-23)December 23, 1987 (aged 28) United States St. Louis Blues
86 C Teuvo Teräväinen 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) 81 kg (179 lb) (1994-09-11)September 11, 1994 (aged 22) United States Carolina Hurricanes

Retired jerseys

The national team has retired Raimo Helminen's #14 and Jari Kurri's #17 jerseys. They currently hang in Hartwall Areena in Helsinki. Teemu Selänne's #8 was retired on December 30th, 2015[7] and Saku Koivu's #11, Jere Lehtinen's #26 and Ville Peltonen's #16 on December 26th, 2015.[8]

Notable players

List of head coaches

References

  1. ^ "NHL announces World Cup of Hockey for 2016". The Canadian Press. 2015-01-24. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Ice hockey: Selanne sets Olympic scoring record". Vancouver. 19 February 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
  3. ^ a b "Selanne's 37th point tops Games mark". ESPN.com. The Associated Press. 20 February 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  4. ^ Anrell, Lasse (14 May 2011). "Drömfinal". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  5. ^ "Jääkiekossa unelmafinaali Leijonat–Tre Kronor". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Sanoma. 13 May 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  6. ^ Aykroyd, Lucas (15 May 2011). "It's gold for Finland!". IIHF. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  7. ^ "Selänteen Leijona-paita jäädytetään Nuorten MM-kisoissa" (in Finnish). Leijonat.fi. 2015-11-08. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
  8. ^ "Koivun, Lehtisen ja Peltosen Leijona-paidat jäädytetään 26.12" (in Finnish). Leijonat.fi. 2015-11-30. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
  9. ^ "Jalonen Leijonien seuraava päävalmentaja". mtv3.fi (in Finnish). 2013-06-07. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  10. ^ "IS: Marjamäki on Leijonien uusi päävalmentaja". mtv3.fi (in Finnish). 2015-08-28. Retrieved August 28, 2015.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Finland_men%27s_national_ice_hockey_team&oldid=752509851"