FINLAND – Hameenlinna is located about 60 miles north from Helsinki and is home to 67,000 inhabitants; it is also where the writer used to live. The pride of the town, apart from its rich history and military bases, is its ice hockey team – HPK. HPK stands for Hameenlinnan Pallo Kerho (loose translation: Hameenlinna’s ball club) though the team has most recently used the English Hockey Playing Knights moniker, as the teams logo has been a knight adorning a hockey helmet.
The past season was HPK’s 80th celebration, which ended in the SM-Liiga finals and a silver medal after being defeated by TPS, Turku.
History and talent
Founded in 1929, HPK has not always been the SM-Liiga powerhouse it is today. The team participated in the lower levels of competition until it reached the first division of hockey in the 1980s. It was then that the team initiated it’s project ‘Journey to the Top’ which aimed to get the team to the highest level of hockey in Finland and capture its first medals. The first part of the project was realised in the mid 80s when the team achieved promotion to the SM-Liiga. The second part was realised in 1991, when HPK won the first of its many bronze medals.
Despite coming from one of the smallest supporter bases in Finland and owning one of the smallest arenas (Patria Arena’s capacity is 5,360), the team has built its early successes around cultivating local junior talent as well as thorough scouting across Finland, Europe and the Americas. In fact, players like Niko Kapanen, Antti Miettinen, Riku Hahl, and Antti Philstrom have played for the HPK junior organisation.
At the same time, HPK was the team that bought Finnish players such as Pasi Nurminen (former Atlanta Thrashers), Miika Wiikman (Hartford Wolfpack), Ville Leino (Philadelphia Flyers), Brian Rafalski (Detroit Redwings), Petr Tenkrat (former Anaheim Duck), Pavel Rosa (former L.A Kings) and Martin Strbak (L.A. Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins).
Despite the team amassing most bronze medals than many of its rivals since the mid 1990’s, the team has also enjoyed a number of successes. In 2003 it set the points record for regular season with 83 points (the record has since been broken by Karpat, Oulu). The team got its first taste of championship glory in 2006 under the guidance of current Team Finland head coach, Jukka Jalonen. Interestingly, Jalonen held the job of coaching the Newcastle Jesters from 1999-2001 before being appointed as the head coach of HPK.
Jalonen’s reign was the most successful in HPK’s history; a fiery coach, who was also known to seek every advantage to his team from requesting referees to measure the opposing players blade curves to ending up on YouTube for many colourful post game comments.
The pedigree of success and consistent playoff positions were only dampened in 2007-2008 season when the team finished 12th and led to a major revamp of the roster.
Road warriors and recognizable style
At the start of the 2008-09 season, HPK became known as road warriors as the Patria Arena was undergoing much needed repairs and modernisation work. The team played back-to-back 10 away games.
In the last 15 years or so, HPK’s style has become known as an attacking style of play and as mentioned previously, it has become known as a place for promising young players to hone their craft. Though the style has always been attacking and relying on flair, in the last few seasons it has seen a change when the team was coached by Jukka Rautakorpi and the team started playing a high pace possession game. Under Rautakorpi’s reign HPK also became more physical. In the 2009-10 play-offs, many of the opponent’s key players were deliberate targets of the physical play, perhaps Sami Kapanen from Kalpa, Kuopio, got the worst of it in the semi-final stages of the competition.
As Jukka Rautakorpi’s contract came to an end, HPK is faced with yet another new head coach and the roster from last season has changed as many players opted for higher paying Swedish or Russian leagues.
City: Hameenlinna, Finland
Founded: 1929
Home Arena and Capacity: Patria Arena, 5,360
Colours: Orange, white, black
Championships: 1 (2 times Silver, 9 times Bronze)
Notable Players: Antti Miettinen(Minnesota Wild, Niko Kapanen(Former Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta now with Ak Bars Kazan), Antti Philstrom (Former Nasville Predator), Karri Ramo (former Tampa Bay Lightning netminder), Miika Wiikman (Former NY Rangers netminder), Riku Hahl (Former Colorado Avalanche), Vladimir Vujtek, Pasi Nurminen (retired goalie for the Atlanta Thrashers), Janne Laukkanen (retired, former Ottawa Sens, Tampa Bay), Ville Leino (Philadelphia Flyers)
Contact: janne.virtanen@prohockeynews.com
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