1.
Finland
–
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland, Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia. Finlands population is 5.5 million, and the majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region,88. 7% of the population is Finnish people who speak Finnish, a Uralic language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages, the second major group are the Finland-Swedes. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe, Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital Helsinki, local governments in 311 municipalities, and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, from the late 12th century, Finland was an integral part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status. In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, we are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns, nevertheless, in 1809, Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1906, Finland became the nation in the world to give the right to vote to all adult citizens. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent, in 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning Reds supported by the equally new Soviet Russia, fighting the Whites, supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, the became a republic. During World War II, the Soviet Union sought repeatedly to occupy Finland, with Finland losing parts of Karelia, Salla and Kuusamo, Petsamo and some islands, Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and established an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War era, Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialization, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. It rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive Nordic-style welfare state, resulting in widespread prosperity, however, Finnish GDP growth has been negative in 2012–2014, with a preceding nadir of −8% in 2009. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, a large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Finnish Constitution. The first known appearance of the name Finland is thought to be on three rune-stones. Two were found in the Swedish province of Uppland and have the inscription finlonti, the third was found in Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. It has the inscription finlandi and dates from the 13th century, the name can be assumed to be related to the tribe name Finns, which is mentioned first known time AD98. The name Suomi has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a source is the Proto-Baltic word *źemē, in addition to the close relatives of Finnish, this name is also used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian
2.
Ice hockey
–
Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice, usually in a rink, in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponents net to score points. Ice hockey teams usually consist of six each, one goaltender. A fast-paced, physical sport, ice hockey is most popular in areas of North America, Ice hockey is the official national winter sport of Canada, where the game enjoys immense popularity. In North America, the National Hockey League is the highest level for mens hockey, the Kontinental Hockey League is the highest league in Russia and much of Eastern Europe. The International Ice Hockey Federation is the governing body for international ice hockey. The IIHF manages international tournaments and maintains the IIHF World Ranking, worldwide, there are ice hockey federations in 74 countries. Ice hockey is believed to have evolved from simple stick and ball games played in the 18th and 19th century United Kingdom and these games were brought to North America and several similar winter games using informal rules were developed, such as shinny and ice polo. The contemporary sport of ice hockey was developed in Canada, most notably in Montreal, some characteristics of that game, such as the length of the ice rink and the use of a puck, have been retained to this day. Amateur ice hockey began in the 1880s, and professional ice hockey originated around 1900. The Stanley Cup, emblematic of ice hockey club supremacy, was first awarded in 1893 to recognize the Canadian amateur champion, in international competitions, the national teams of six countries predominate, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States. Of the 69 medals awarded all-time in mens competition at the Olympics, in the annual Ice Hockey World Championships,177 of 201 medals have been awarded to the six nations. In Russia and the Ukraine, where hockey can also refer to bandy, the name hockey has no clear origin. The English historian and biographer John Strype did not use the word hockey when he translated the proclamation in 1720, the 1573 Statute of Galway banned a sport called hokie—the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves. A form of this word was thus being used in the 16th century, though much removed from its current usage. According to the Austin Hockey Association, the word derives from the Scots Gaelic puc or the Irish poc. The blow given by a hurler to the ball with his caman or hurley is always called a puck. Stick-and-ball games date back to pre-Christian times, in Europe, these games included the Irish game of hurling, the closely related Scottish game of shinty and versions of field hockey. IJscolf, a game resembling colf on a surface, was popular in the Low Countries between the Middle Ages and the Dutch Golden Age. It was played with a curved bat, a wooden or leather ball
3.
Kontinental Hockey League
–
The Kontinental Hockey League is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises 29 member clubs based in Belarus, China, Croatia, Finland, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia and it is widely considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in Europe and Asia, and second in the world behind the NHL. The Gagarin Cup is awarded annually to the playoff champion at the end of each season. The title of Champion of Russia is given to the highest ranked Russian team, the league formed from the Russian Superleague and the champion of the 2007–08 season of the second division, with 24 teams,21 from Russia and one each from Belarus, Latvia, and Kazakhstan. The teams were divided into four divisions, based on the performance in previous seasons, the Opening Cup game in Ufa, which was already under way when news of the disaster arrived, was suspended. In memory of the disaster,7 September remains a day of mourning on which no KHL regular season games are held, in the 2009–10 season, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg joined the KHL and Khimik Voskresensk was transferred to a lower league. Next season, HC Yugra joined the league, after several attempts by teams from Central Europe and Scandinavia to join the KHL, expansion beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union was finally realized in 2011. Lev Poprad, a newly founded team based in Poprad, Slovakia was admitted to the league, Lev and Slovan qualified for the playoffs in their first KHL season. In 2013, Medveščak from Croatia and Russian Admiral Vladivostok joined the league, the league comprised 28 teams during the 2013–14 season, of which 21 are based in Russia and 7 more are located in the other countries. In 2014, Finnish team Jokerit from Helsinki, Lada Togliatti, however, HC Donbass is not playing in the league this season, due to the political instability in Ukraine, but intends to rejoin later. Two other teams, Lev Praha and Spartak Moscow, also withdrew from the 2014–2015 season due to financial problems, prior to the 2015–16 season, Atlant Moscow Oblast withdrew from the KHL, while Spartak Moscow returned. The Chinese club HC Kunlun Red Star were admitted for the 2016–17 season, since 2009, the league has been divided into East and West conferences. In the current season, the Western Conference includes 14 teams divided into two divisions,7 teams per division, the Eastern Conference has 15 teams, divided into divisions of 7 and 8 respectively. Thus, each played a total of 60 games in the regular season. The eight top-ranked teams in each conference receive playoff berths, within each conference quarterfinals, semifinals and finals are played before the conference winners play against each other for the Gagarin Cup. The division winners are seeded first and second in their conference, all playoff rounds are played as best-of-seven series. In each round, the top seeded remaining team is paired with the lowest seeded team etc, in the 2012–13 season, the Nadezhda Cup was introduced, a consolation tournament for the teams who did not qualify for the playoffs. The winning team in the tournament wins the first overall pick in the KHL Junior Draft, the tournament is intended to extend the season and help maintain interest in hockey in the cities of these teams, and help players of national teams prepare for upcoming World Championship
4.
Finland men's national ice hockey team
–
The Finnish mens national ice hockey team, or Leijonat / Lejonen, as it is called in Finland, is governed by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. In the 1995 Mens World Ice Hockey Championships, Finland achieved its first ever gold in ice hockey. Finland reached the final with a 5-0 victory over France in the quarterfinals, in the finals, the Finns faced off against their hockey rivals and host of the 1995 tournament, Sweden. At the 1998 Olympic mens ice hockey tournament, Team Finland came away with Bronze, Teemu Selänne led the tournament in goals scored and total points achieved. 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, 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, Finlands goaltender Antero Niittymäki was named the MVP of the tournament and Teemu Selänne was voted best forward. The format was changed from the 1998 and 2002 tournaments, to a 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 teams in their group once. The top four teams each group advanced to the quarter-finals. At the 2007 IIHF World Championship, Finland lost the finals to Canadas 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,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, 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 breakaway to put the game away
5.
Lausanne HC
–
Lausanne HC is an ice hockey team based in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland, which competes in the National League A - the top tier of Swiss hockey. During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, the HC Lausanne signed National Hockey League players like Martin St. Louis and Andy Roach. During the 2014-15 season, their second in the National League A, founded in 1922, the Lausanne Hockey Club is one of the oldest clubs in Switzerland. They played for sixteen years at Chalet-à-Gobet, in the city heights, in 1938, LHC moved their headquarters to Montchoisi where, in 1941, they merged with Star HC to become the Montchoisi Hockey Club. On November 6,1949, the team of Lausanne chose their original name and it is with this name that they started off in the Swiss national league. Relegated to Nationalliga B in 1954, they powered back to the Nationalliga A on March 2,1957, for the next seventeen years, LHC remained at the Nationalliga B level where they had occasional success. On February 18,1978, in front of over 7,000 fans, Lausanne Hockey Club obtained promotion to Nationalliga A, after three seasons spent in the highest league, LHC, following the loss of a player in a car accident, was relegated to NLB. They remained there from 1981 to 1984 before falling to the 1, liga while also moving to the International Ice Center at Malley where they still play today. They then played one season in first League and made a trip to NLB. Three years later they reached the finals in 1989 and obtain their promotion to NLB, in 1992, the club’s survival was threatened by a bankruptcy. The team saved itself from relegation to the 1, the season 1993-1994 saw participation in the finals to access the national League A, finals played in five games against Rapperswil, the latter winning it over. At the beginning of the 1994-1995 season, Lausanne Hockey Club was designated as the Nationalliga B favorite to access the NLA, against GCK Lions during the finals and after five games, the decisive match was won by Lausanne 8 to 0. In the 1995-1996 season, after a series of losses the club decided to fire their head coach, the change didn’t prevent Lausanne from being relegated to NLB at the end of the season. During the following four seasons, the LHC occupied the middle of the NLB ranking until 2000-2001 when they were at the head of the championship during almost the whole season, Lausanne won the title of champion of NLB and defeated HC La Chaux-de-Fonds for the promotion games. Winning against the HCC in six matches, LHC was back in NLA for the 2001-2002 season, after a relegation in the 2004-2005 season, Lausanne played the role of “favorite” for the other teams of the NLB. The club tried to reach a NLA once again through promotion, but failed twice in the promotion games 2008-2009 and the 2009-2010 seasons, losing both times against EHC Biel in seven games. In the 2012-2013 season, after a slow start into the season, Lausanne won the NLB championship for the 7th time. In the following games, Lausanne defeated the SCL Tigers in six games to reach again the NLA for the 2013-2014 season
6.
2009 IIHF World Championship
–
The 2009 IIHF World Championship took place in Switzerland from 24 April to 10 May. The games were played in the PostFinance Arena in Bern and Schluefweg in Kloten, the PostFinance Arena in Bern was renovated and accommodates an attendance of 17,000. The Eishalle Schluefweg in Kloten was expanded for the 2008–09 season to a capacity of 9,000 people, Switzerland gained the right to host the World Championship for the 10th time. Live For The Action by Swiss hard rock veterans Krokus was named the official anthem of the tournament, russia won the championship, winning all its matches and defeating Canada in the final 2–1. Ilya Kovalchuk was named the best forward and the most valuable player of the tournament, over 17 million people watched the televised final around the world. Sixteen participating teams were placed in the four groups. After playing a round-robin, the top three teams in each group advanced to the qualifying round, the last team in each group competed in the relegation round. Groups A and D were played in Kloten, groups B and C in Bern, each team played three games in this round, one against each of the three teams from the other group paired with theirs. These three games, along with the two games played against the other two advancing teams from the same group in the Preliminary Round, counted in the qualifying round standings. The top four teams in both groups E and F advanced to the playoff round, the bottom team in the standings from each group of the Preliminary Round played in the relegation round. Germany, as hosts of the 2010 tournament, were guaranteed to stay in the top division. Denmark, the best ranked team in the group from the three teams, stayed in the top division for 2010, while Austria and Hungary were relegated to the Division I tournament. The final standings of the tournament according to IIHF, * Hosts of the 2010 WC, list shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals. If the list exceeds 10 skaters because of a tie in points, all of the tied skaters are left out. TOI = Time On Ice, SA = Shots Against, GA = Goals Against, GAA = Goals Against Average, Sv% = Save Percentage, SO = Shutouts Source, IIHF. com Juniors, Womens, Mens U18, Womens U18 Official website
7.
Amur Khabarovsk
–
Hockey Club Amur, commonly referred to as the Amur Khabarovsk, is a Russian professional ice hockey team based in Khabarovsk. They are members of the Chernyshev Division of the Kontinental Hockey League, located in the Russian Far East, the team takes its name from the Amur River, and plays its home games at the Platinum Arena. Amur Khabarovsk was founded in 1966 as SKA Khabarovsk, it adopted its current name in 1996. By its location in the Russian Far East, the team is pretty isolated from other team in the KHL, making rivalries difficult. Still, the team is very popular among Khabarovsk citizens, and despite its poor results. For a long time a lower division dweller, Khabarovsk won the championship of the Soviet League Division 3 in 1989, in 1996, Khabarovsk promoted to the Russian Superleague. A relegation to the Vysshaya Liga occurred in 2004 when the company that funds the club had financial difficulties. The Tigers could promote back to the top level in 2006 and that same financial crisis forced the teams reserve squad, the Golden Amur Khabarovsk, to withdraw from the Asia League where it played for the 2004-05 season. The team could finish the season and take part in the playoffs, however, they finished third in season standings. In 2008, Khabarovsk was one of the 24 founding members of the Kontinental Hockey League, the team played the leagues inaugural game on September 2 against Dinamo Riga at home in front of a sell-out crowd of 7,100 people. Unfortunately for the fans, their team lost 4-2 to the Latvian side, Riga and the Tigers were playing back-to-back games in Khabarovsk, however, and on the second match, Amur won 7-6 in a tied game that went to shootouts. But the 2008-09 didnt prove to be successful for the Tigers. The team was plagued with injuries - in October only,11 players were side-lined, including imports Kyle Wanvig, murleys signing didnt prove beneficial for Amur though, as he only contributed 8 points to a fairly impotent offence that scored only 111 goals. Veterans Oleg Belkin and Peter Nylander were Amurs top goal scorers with 11 goals each, Amurs defence was better, with regular defencemen Vasily Turkovsky and Viktor Kostyuchenok even managing to finish the season with a +3 and +2 record, respectively. But overall, the season was disappointing for the Tigers, with a 20th place,15 wins and 60 points, Amur finished 21st, out of playoffs again, this time again with 60 points and only 12 wins in regular time. All in all, its only 129 goals that the team scored,18 better than the previous season, Oleg Belkin had to miss the whole season, while Peter Nylander left the team after ten game to go back in Sweden, joining Timrå IK of the Elitserien. The defence was not as solid as the season, with Turkovsky retired. The result was 187 goals against,29 more than the previous season, former NHL veteran and Stanley Cup winner Nolan Pratt ended up being the fourth defenceman on the team in icetime and finished the season with 11 points and a -14 +/- rating
8.
SM-liiga
–
The Liiga, known as SM-liiga from 1975 to 2013, and colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. As of March 2008, it is ranked by the IIHF as the second strongest league in Europe and it was created in 1975 to replace the SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur league. The SM-liiga is not directly overseen by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, SM is a common abbreviation for Suomen mestaruus, Finnish championship. On 9 August 2013, the dropped the SM. In the 2011–12 season there were 14 teams, the league was opened in 2005 and allowed KalPa to get a promotion. In 2009 a new system was introduced and it includes the last placed SM-liiga team facing the Mestis champion in a best of seven playout series, the SM-liiga was constituted in 1975 to concentrate the development of top level Finnish ice hockey, and pave the way towards professionalism. Its predecessor, the SM-sarja, being a competition, had its disadvantages. One of the problems was that the governing of the SM-sarja was based on the annual meeting of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Since all clubs registered under the Finnish Ice Hockey Association had the right to vote, therefore, the concentrated development of top-level Finnish ice hockey by the motivated and financially capable clubs proved arduous. The new SM-liiga was to be run by a board consisting of its participating clubs only, the SM-sarja was also outdated on its own, as it was run according to amateur principles. Clubs were not supposed to pay their players beyond compensation for lost wages, however, by the 1970s many clubs were already run like businesses and recruited players through a contract of employment, paying their wages secretly and often evading taxes. However, in 1974, accounting reform in Finland extended book-keeping standards to sports clubs. The SM-liiga was to allow wages for players, and clubs were put under a tighter supervision. They were to establish their own association for SM-liiga ice hockey only, separating their commitments from junior activities, copies of all player contracts were to be sent to the SM-liiga to provide players with adequate security, such as insurance and pensions. The SM-sarja had other limits for players, according to amateur ideals, no player could represent more than one club within one season. To discourage trading, a system of quarantine was in force, the SM-liiga stripped the limitations for players, replaced quarantine with a then-modest transfer payment, and introduced the transfer list. Players wanting a transfer were to sign up, and the SM-liiga would distribute the right of negotiations to clubs, in practice the list was not successful, as both parties often worked their way around the formalities. These changes led to a transition towards professional ice hockey as the league became semi-professional
9.
Mikkelin Jukurit
–
Mikkelin Jukurit is an ice hockey team in the SM-liiga. They play in Mikkeli, Finland, at the Kalevankankaan jäähalli, the team has won 7 Mestis championships. Mikkelin Jukurit was founded in 1970, the season of 1998-99 was a turning point for the team, when Matti Turunen became the executive director and Risto Dufva from Jyväskylä became head coach. In 1999–2000, they won their first championship in the newly established Suomi-sarja league, when Jukurit had won a fourth championship in spring 2006, Risto Dufva left the team
Finland