Ilves
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- For the Estonian politician, see Toomas Hendrik Ilves.
| Ilves | |
 |
|
| League | SM-liiga |
| Founded | 1931 |
| History | Ilves 1931 - present |
| Arena | Tampereen jäähalli |
| City | Tampere, Finland |
| Team Colors | Green, yellow, black |
| General Manager | Esa Honkalehto |
| Head Coach | Sakari Pietilä |
| Team Captain | Raimo Helminen |
Ilves is a Finnish sports club nowadays mostly known by their ice hockey team in the SM-liiga. They play in Tampere, Finland at the Tampereen jäähalli. Ilves is Finnish for lynx.
- Founded: 1931
- Arena: Tampereen jäähalli (capacity 7,800)
- Uniform colours: Home jersey green, away jersey white. Yellow and black decorations. Pants black. (team colors come from the coat of arms the city of Tampere had when Ilves was founded)
- Logo design: The face of a yellow cat with its fangs showing. Designed by Rauno Broms in 1963.
- League championships won: 16 (1936, 1937, 1938, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1966, 1972, 1985)
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[edit] Team History
With 16 championships, Ilves is the most successful team in the Finnish ice-hockey league and plays its home games in Finland's first and oldest ice hall, Hakametsä. Ilves also won the Finnish soccer championship in 1983 and twice the national cup in both ice-hockey and soccer (Ilves won the last ice-hockey cup held in 1971 and has therefore been the reigning champion since). Nowadays Ilves is only a junior organization in soccer since the soccer club got into financial troubles in late nineties. Ilves is a predecessor of soccer team Tampere United. Ilves also has a futsal team in Finnish league which has won the Finnish championship three times (2004, 2005, 2007) and the cup competition once (2006), a floorball team at third highest level and a women's ringette team. They have numerous boys' and girls' junior teams in ice-hockey, soccer, floorball (boys only) and ringette (girls only) making it the largest sports club in Finland.
Ilves also has had American football, women's basketball and handball teams in past and won one bronze in American football and one silver in handball.
The most famous Ilves player is Raimo Helminen. Ilves is also famous for its large junior organization. Specifically, Ilves is known for producing goaltenders and skillful attackers. Ilves has the most championships in every junior level, with the exception of C-juniors (U-16) where Jokerit has one more, and also the most women's ice-hockey championships. Ilves has won 67 national ice-hockey championships all in all which is 30 more than the second best has.
[edit] Notable Players
[edit] Current squad
As of January 26, 2007
| Goalkeepers | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Player | Glove hand | Contract | Place of Birth | ||
| 1 |  |
Riku Helenius | L | 2008 | Pälkäne, Finland | |
| 37 | |
Pasi Häkkinen | L | 2007 | Lappeenranta, Finland | |
| 87 | |
Tuukka Rask | L | 2006 | Savonlinna, Finland | |
| Defenders | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Player | Lower hand | Contract | Place of Birth | |
| 3 | |
Toni Niemi | L | 2007 | Pirkkala, Finland |
| 4 | |
Jyrki Lumme | L | 2007 | Tampere, Finland |
| 6 | |
Joonas Lehtivuori | L | 2009 | Pirkkala, Finland |
| 8 | |
Teemu Jääskeläinen | L | 2008 | Tampere, Finland |
| 12 |  |
Tomas Slovak | R | 2007 | Košice, Czechoslovakia |
| 19 | |
Mikko Kuukka | L | 2008 | Hämeenkyrö, Finland |
| 23 | |
Jarkko Näppilä | L | 2008 | Tampere, Finland |
| 26 | |
Teppo Tuomanen | R | 2008 | Hyvinkää, Finland |
| 27 | |
Juho Mielonen | R | 2008 | Savonlinna, Finland |
| 33 | |
Kristián Kudroč | R | 2007 | Michalovce, Czechoslovakia |
| 38 | |
Pasi Petriläinen | L | 2007, (2008) | Pirkkala, Finland |
| Forwards | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Player | Lower hand | Playing situation | Contract | Place of Birth | |
| 9 | |
Mikko Peltola | L | C | 2008 | Tampere, Finland |
| 10 | |
Sami Sandell | L | W | 2009 | Nokia, Finland |
| 15 | |
Perttu Lindgren | L | C | 2007 | Tampere, Finland |
| 20 | |
Ville Korhonen | L | W | 2008 | Tampere, Finland |
| 21 | |
Tommi Huhtala | L | C | 2008 | Tampere, Finland |
| 22 | |
Toni Koivisto | L | LW | 2007 | Ylitornio, Finland |
| 25 |  |
Radek Duda | L | RW | 2007 | Sokolov, Czechoslovakia |
| 29 | |
Jussi Pesonen | L | RW | 2007 | Muurame, Finland |
| 32 | |
Tomi Hirvonen | L | C | 2007 | Tampere, Finland |
| 39 | |
Vesa Viitakoski | L | W | 2008 | Lappeenranta, Finland |
| 41 | |
Raimo Helminen | L | C | 2007 | Tampere, Finland |
| 42 | |
Juuso Antonen | L | LW | 2009 | Tampere, Finland |
| 51 | |
Pasi Määttänen | L | LW | 2007 | Tampere, Finland |
| 61 | |
Marko Anttila | R | RW | 2007 | Lempäälä, Finland |
[edit] Not to be Forgotten
- Reijo Hakanen
- Aarne Honkavaara
- Risto Jalo
- Juhani Lahtinen
- Mikko Mäkelä
- Mika Nieminen
- Lasse Oksanen
- Jorma Peltonen
- Ville Sirén
- Raimo Summanen
- Jukka Tammi
- Vesa Toskala
- Jarmo Wasama
[edit] Retired Numbers
- 2 - Jarmo Wasama
- 7 - Aarne Honkavaara
- 13 - Risto Jalo
- 14 - Lasse Oksanen
- 16 - Jorma Peltonen
Number 24 has not been retired officially but is not in use. (Veikko Suominen whose number it was committed suicide during season 1978-79)
[edit] External links
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| SM-liiga teams : Ässät | Blues | HIFK | HPK | Ilves | Jokerit | JYP | KalPa | Kärpät | Lukko | Pelicans | SaiPa | Tappara | TPS | |
| Trophies and awards: Kultainen kypärä | Kalevi Numminen trophy | Jarmo Wasama memorial trophy | Matti Keinonen trophy | Raimo Kilpiö trophy | Urpo Ylönen trophy | Pekka Rautakallio trophy | Aarne Honkavaara trophy | Veli-Pekka Ketola trophy | Lasse Oksanen trophy | Jari Kurri trophy | |
| Former teams : FPS | Jokipojat | KooKoo | Koo-Vee | Sport | TuTo | |
| Other leagues and teams : Mestis | Suomi-sarja | Finnish national men's ice hockey team | Finnish national women's ice hockey team | |
