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Finland

Nickname(s)	Leijonat / Lejonen (The Lions)
Association	Finnish Ice Hockey Association
Head coach	Jukka Jalonen
Assistants	Ari Hilli Mikko Manner Jussi Tapola
Captain	Mikael Granlund
Most games	Raimo Helminen (331)
Most points	Raimo Helminen (207)
IIHF code	FIN
Ranking
Current IIHF	5 1 (21 May 2018)[1]
Highest IIHF	2 (first in 2011)
Lowest IIHF	7 (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
Appearances	64 (first in 1939)
Best result	Gold: (1995, 2011)
World Cup / Canada Cup
Appearances	7 (first in 1976)
Best result	2nd: (2004)
Olympics
Appearances	14 (first in 1952)
Medals	Silver (1988, 2006) Bronze (1994, 1998, 2010, 2014)

Medal record
Olympic Games
	1988 Calgary	Team
	2006 Turin	Team
	1994 Lillehammer	Team
	1998 Nagano	Team
	2010 Vancouver	Team
	2014 Sochi	Team
World Cup / Canada Cup
	2004 Toronto
	1991 Hamilton
World Championship
	1995 Sweden
	2011 Slovakia
	1992 Czechoslovakia
	1994 Italy
	1998 Switzerland
	1999 Norway
	2001 Germany
	2007 Russia
	2014 Belarus
	2016 Russia
	2000 Russia
	2006 Latvia
	2008 Canada
European Championship
	1962 United States
	1985 Czechoslovakia
	1986 Soviet Union
	1987 Austria
	1991 Finland

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, United States, the Czech Republic, Russia and Sweden.

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 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 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 5th (21-5-2018) with 3765 points in the IIHF World Ranking. However, they have lost 8 out 10 World Championship finals they have reached, which is more than any other team after the tournament started using playoffs.

Tournament record

Olympic Games

Games	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	Coach	Captain	Finish
1920 Antwerp	was not involved								-
1924 Chamonix									-
1928 St. Moritz									-
1932 Lake Placid									-
1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen									-
1948 St. Moritz									-
1952 Oslo	8	2	6	0	21	60	Risto Lindroos	Aarne Honkavaara	7th
1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo	Did not compete
1960 Squaw Valley	6	3	2	1	55	23	Joe Wirkkunen	Yrjö Hakala	7th
1964 Innsbruck	8	3	5	0	18	33	Joe Wirkkunen	Raimo Kilpiö	6th
1968 Grenoble	8	4	3	1	28	25	Gustav Bubník	Matti Reunamäki	5th
1972 Sapporo	6	3	3	0	27	25	Seppo Liitsola	Lasse Oksanen	5th
1976 Innsbruck	6	3	3	0	30	20	Seppo Liitsola	Seppo Lindström	4th
1980 Lake Placid	7	3	3	1	31	25	Kalevi Numminen	Tapio Levo	4th
1984 Sarajevo	6	2	3	1	31	26	Alpo Suhonen	Anssi Melametsä	6th
1988 Calgary	8	5	2	1	34	14	Pentti Matikainen	Timo Blomqvist	Silver
1992 Albertville	8	4	3	1	29	11	Pentti Matikainen	Pekka Tuomisto	7th
1994 Lillehammer	8	7	1	0	38	10	Curt Lindström	Timo Jutila	Bronze
1998 Nagano	6	3	3	0	20	19	Hannu Aravirta	Saku Koivu	Bronze
2002 Salt Lake City	4	2	2	0	12	10	Hannu Aravirta	Teemu Selänne	6th
2006 Turin	8	7	1	0	29	8	Erkka Westerlund	Saku Koivu	Silver
2010 Vancouver	6	4	2	0	19	13	Jukka Jalonen	Saku Koivu	Bronze
2014 Sochi	6	4	1	1	24	10	Erkka Westerlund	Teemu Selänne	Bronze
2018 Pyeongchang	5	3	0	2	16	9	Lauri Marjamäki	Lasse Kukkonen	6th
2022 Beijing							To be determined

World Championship

World championship record
Year	Location	Result
1939	Zürich / Basel,   Switzerland	13th place
1949	Stockholm,  Sweden	7th place
1951	Paris,  France	7th place
1954	Stockholm,  Sweden	6th place
1955	Krefeld / Dortmund / Cologne, West Germany	9th place
1957	Moscow,  Soviet Union	4th place
1958	Oslo,  Norway	6th place
1959	Prague / Bratislava,  Czechoslovakia	6th place
1961	Geneva / Lausanne,   Switzerland	7th place
1962	Colorado Springs / Denver,  United States	4th place
1963	Stockholm,  Sweden	5th place
1965	Tampere,  Finland	7th place
1966	Ljubljana,  Yugoslavia	7th place
1967	Vienna,  Austria	6th place
1969	Stockholm,  Sweden	5th place
1970	Stockholm,  Sweden	4th place
1971	Bern / Geneva,   Switzerland	4th place
1972	Prague,  Czechoslovakia	4th place
1973	Moscow,  Soviet Union	4th place
1974	Helsinki,  Finland	4th place
1975	Munich / Düsseldorf,  West Germany	4th place
1976	Katowice,  Poland	5th place
1977	Vienna,  Austria	5th place
1978	Prague,  Czechoslovakia	7th place
1979	Moscow,  Soviet Union	5th place
1981	Gothenburg / Stockholm,  Sweden	6th place
1982	Helsinki / Tampere,  Finland	5th place
1983	Düsseldorf / Dortmund / Munich, West Germany	7th place
1985	Prague,  Czechoslovakia	5th place
1986	Moscow,  Soviet Union	4th place
1987	Vienna,  Austria	5th place
1989	Stockholm / Södertälje,  Sweden	5th place
1990	Bern / Fribourg,   Switzerland	6th place
1991	Turku / Helsinki / Tampere,  Finland	5th place
1992	Prague / Bratislava,  Czechoslovakia	Silver
1993	Dortmund / Munich,  Germany	7th place
1994	Bolzano / Canazei / Milano,  Italy	Silver
1995	Stockholm / Gävle,  Sweden	Gold
1996	Vienna,  Austria	5th place
1997	Helsinki / Turku / Tampere,  Finland	5th place
1998	Zürich / Basel,   Switzerland	Silver
1999	Oslo / Lillehammer / Hamar,  Norway	Silver
2000	Saint Petersburg,  Russia	Bronze
2001	Cologne / Hanover / Nuremberg,  Germany	Silver
2002	Gothenburg / Karlstad / Jönköping,  Sweden	4th place
2003	Helsinki / Tampere / Turku,  Finland	5th place
2004	Prague / Ostrava,  Czech Republic	6th place
2005	Innsbruck / Vienna,  Austria	7th place
2006	Riga,  Latvia	Bronze
2007	Moscow / Mytishchi,  Russia	Silver
2008	Quebec City / Halifax,  Canada	Bronze
2009	Bern / Kloten,   Switzerland	5th place
2010	Cologne / Mannheim / Gelsenkirchen,  Germany	6th place
2011	Bratislava / Košice,  Slovakia	Gold
2012	Helsinki,  Finland / Stockholm,  Sweden	4th place
2013	Stockholm,  Sweden / Helsinki,  Finland	4th place
2014	Minsk,  Belarus	Silver
2015	Prague / Ostrava,  Czech Republic	6th place
2016	Moscow / Saint Petersburg,  Russia	Silver
2017	Cologne,  Germany / Paris,  France	4th place
2018	Copenhagen / Herning,  Denmark	5th place
2019	Bratislava / Košice,  Slovakia
2020	Zurich / (Lausanne),   Switzerland
2021	Minsk,  Belarus / Riga,  Latvia
2022	Helsinki / Tampere,  Finland

Canada Cup / World Cup

Year	Coach	Captain	Finish	Rank
1976	Lasse Heikkilä	Veli-Pekka Ketola	Round-robin	6th
1981	Kalevi Numminen	Jari Kurri	Round-robin	6th
1987	Rauno Korpi	Jari Kurri	Round-robin	6th
1991	Pentti Matikainen	Jari Kurri	Semifinal

Year	GP	W	OW	T	OL	L	GF	GA	Coach	Captain	Finish	Rank
1996	4	2	–	0	–	2	17	16	Curt Lindström	Jari Kurri	Quarterfinal	5th
2004	6	4	0	1	0	1	17	9	Raimo Summanen	Saku Koivu	Final
2016	3	0	0	-	0	3	1	9	Lauri Marjamäki	Mikko Koivu	Group stage	8th

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


• 
  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

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)
  
  
  • 
    Bronze medal (2016)
  
  

• 
  Channel One Cup:
  
  • 
    Gold medal (2003, 2009)
  
  
  • 
    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)
  
  

• 
  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)
  
  

• 
  Czech Hockey Games:
  
  • 
    Gold medal (1996, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2012, 2013 (August) )
  
  
  • 
    Silver medal (1997, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2017, 2018)
  
  
  • 
    Bronze medal (2008, 2009 (April), 2009 (September), 2011)
  
  

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

As of the 2018 Channel One Cup

Euro Hockey Challenge

• 
  2011 – Finished in
  


• 
  2012 – Finished in
  


• 
  2013 – Finished in
  


• 
  2014 – Finished in
  


• 
  2015 – Finished in
  


• 
  2016 – Finished in
  


• 
  2017 – Finished in
  


• 
  2018 – Finished in
  

Other Tournaments

• 
  Deutschland Cup: Gold medal (1990)


• 
  Nissan Cup: Gold medal (1989, 1994)


• 
  Spengler Cup: Silver medal (1975)

Team

Current roster

Roster for the 2018 IIHF World Championship.^[7]

Head coach: Lauri Marjamäki

No.	Pos.	Name	Height	Weight	Birthdate	Team
2	D	Ville Pokka	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)	7001890000000000000♠89 kg (196 lb)	(1994-06-03) June 3, 1994 (age 24)	Belleville Senators
4	D	Tommi Kivistö	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)	7001950000000000000♠95 kg (209 lb)	(1991-06-07) June 7, 1991 (age 27)	Jokerit
6	D	Julius Honka	1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)	7001840000000000000♠84 kg (185 lb)	(1995-12-03) December 3, 1995 (age 23)	Dallas Stars
7	D	Niko Mikkola	1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)	7001840000000000000♠84 kg (185 lb)	(1996-04-27) April 27, 1996 (age 22)	Tappara
12	F	Marko Anttila	2.03 m (6 ft 8 in)	7002104000000000000♠104 kg (229 lb)	(1985-05-27) May 27, 1985 (age 33)	Jokerit
18	F	Saku Mäenalanen	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)	7001870000000000000♠87 kg (192 lb)	(1994-05-29) May 29, 1994 (age 24)	Oulun Kärpät
19	F	Veli-Matti Savinainen	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)	7001820000000000000♠82 kg (181 lb)	(1986-01-05) January 5, 1986 (age 33)	HC Yugra
20	F	Sebastian Aho – A	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)	7001780000000000000♠78 kg (172 lb)	(1997-07-26) July 26, 1997 (age 21)	Carolina Hurricanes
22	F	Janne Pesonen	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)	7001830000000000000♠83 kg (183 lb)	(1982-05-11) May 11, 1982 (age 36)	Växjö Lakers
24	F	Kasperi Kapanen	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)	7001820000000000000♠82 kg (181 lb)	(1996-07-23) July 23, 1996 (age 22)	Toronto Maple Leafs
25	F	Pekka Jormakka	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)	7001800000000000000♠80 kg (180 lb)	(1990-09-14) September 14, 1990 (age 28)	Jokerit
29	G	Harri Säteri	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)	7001920000000000000♠92 kg (203 lb)	(1989-12-29) December 29, 1989 (age 29)	Detroit Red Wings[8]
34	F	Olli Palola	1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)	7001810000000000000♠81 kg (179 lb)	(1988-04-08) April 8, 1988 (age 31)	Jokerit
35	G	Ville Husso	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)	7001940000000000000♠94 kg (207 lb)	(1995-02-26) February 26, 1995 (age 24)	San Antonio Rampage
37	G	Eero Kilpeläinen	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)	7001790000000000000♠79 kg (174 lb)	(1985-05-07) May 7, 1985 (age 33)	Örebro HK
41	D	Miro Heiskanen	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)	7001770000000000000♠77 kg (170 lb)	(1999-07-18) July 18, 1999 (age 19)	HIFK
50	D	Juuso Riikola	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)	7001860000000000000♠86 kg (190 lb)	(1993-11-09) November 9, 1993 (age 25)	KalPa
55	D	Miika Koivisto	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)	7001880000000000000♠88 kg (194 lb)	(1990-07-20) July 20, 1990 (age 28)	Oulun Kärpät
64	F	Mikael Granlund – C	1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)	7001830000000000000♠83 kg (183 lb)	(1992-02-26) February 26, 1992 (age 27)	Minnesota Wild
65	F	Sakari Manninen	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)	7001710000000000000♠71 kg (157 lb)	(1992-02-10) February 10, 1992 (age 27)	Örebro HK
74	F	Antti Suomela	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)	7001780000000000000♠78 kg (172 lb)	(1994-03-17) March 17, 1994 (age 25)	San Jose Sharks[9]
77	D	Markus Nutivaara	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)	7001870000000000000♠87 kg (192 lb)	(1994-06-06) June 6, 1994 (age 24)	Cleveland Monsters
81	F	Eeli Tolvanen	1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)	7001820000000000000♠82 kg (181 lb)	(1999-04-22) April 22, 1999 (age 19)	Nashville Predators
86	F	Teuvo Teräväinen	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)	7001810000000000000♠81 kg (179 lb)	(1994-09-11) September 11, 1994 (age 24)	Carolina Hurricanes
96	F	Mikko Rantanen – A	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)	7001960000000000000♠96 kg (212 lb)	(1996-10-29) October 29, 1996 (age 22)	Colorado Avalanche

Former National jerseys

Retired jerseys

Notable players

List of head coaches

References

External links

• Official website


• IIHF profile