OULU, FINLAND – Oulun Karpat is a team formed in 1946. The team has become a true power house of the league since the turn of the century having won the SM-Liiga title four times. It also won the championship in 1981. Despite having collected more championships than any other team in the past ten years, the Karpat story is not as rosy and the team wasn’t always the mainstay at the SM-Liiga level. In the late 1980s the team’s financial situation was in dire straits and the team was having difficulty to ice a team that was able to compete with the SM-Liiga standard. The final death knoll for the team came in 1988-1989 season when the team was relegated to the first division. In the relegation series, the team faced Jokerit and one Teemu Selanne scored seven times in the five game series. After the relegation, Karpat set its goal on promotion back to SM-Liiga and were hoping to do this as quickly as possible, but things were not to be. The team succeeded in the first division finishing in the top 3 for the first three years, but promotion yet eluded the team. The first chance at promotion came in 1992 when the team faced Tappara, only to lose the best of seven series 3-1. Things were looking promising, but there was a further black clouds looming in the horizon. Karpat sinks deeper
By the end of the 1993-1994 season, the team’s finances were in a bad state and the team filed for liquidation and was driven to bankruptcy. The Karpat bankruptcy is also known as the six million Finnish mark bankruptcy. Despite this, the team was granted permission to take part in the second division for 1994-1995 season with limited resources. The then Director of Personnel Heikki Airio said that: “All the players that were capable of leaving, left. We were left mainly with junior players who weren’t good enough to play elsewhere, or juniors whose parents wouldn’t let them move to a team that was further away from home. We recruited some older players from neighbouring teams. We had no money for wages, though none of the players really demanded any in the first place.” Despite Karpat finishing fourth in the second division and where this was not enough for promotion back to the first division, the division was expanded by further four teams, granting Karpat promotion to the division it had fallen from the previous season. Post 1995 and rise to the top
Karpat was a dominant force in the 1st division once it was promoted. It had a shot at promotion in its first year back in the 1st division but lost the promotion series against Kalpa 3-0. The second chance came in 1998 when Karpat dominated the division and marched all the way to the promotion games again. Again facing Kalpa and despite not succeeding in promotion, Karpat did claw a game out of Kalpa to lose the series 3-1. In the 1998-1999 season, Juhani Tamminen took the reins at Karpat and built a team that was capable of playing at the SM-Liiga level. The team’s season in the first division was a huge success and it lost only a handful games. The crucial losses came in the first round of the first division play-offs when Karpat were eliminated in the first round. The team for the following year was much stronger and housed names like Niklas Hagman. The team went on to win the league and proceeded all the way to the promotion games to face Pelicans from Lahti. After 11 years out of the SM-Liiga limelight, Karpat sealed its return by defeating Pelicans in the series by 3-1. SM-Liiga Beckons
Since arriving back at the SM-Liiga level, many cast Karpat aside, thinking that a newly promoted team could challenge, especially with the history Karpat has had. But the team proved doubters wrong by qualifying for the playoffs and eliminating the league winners Jokerit in the first round. Karpat made it all the way to the bronze final, but lost out to Tappara. The first season in the league was only a warning of things to come as Karpat marched into the finals in 2002-2003 season. By this time Karpat had a formidable star studded team including names such as Petr Tenkrat, Niklas Backstrom, Joni Pitkanen and Pekka Rinne. Karpat lost the final in three straight games to Tappara. The following season, with most of its core still intact, Karpat took its first SM-Liiga title since 1981. Since 2005, Karpat has won the championship a further two times, making it the most successful team in the league since the start of the new century.
The 2010-2011 season will surely look like another successful year for Karpat. The roster has maintained much of its core, which includes a former LA King, Pavel Rosa and former Florida Panther Kamil Kreps. One would be surprised if Karpat didn’t make it to the semi final stages of the competition this year, but that is where the going gets tough. If Karpat can maintain a healthy roster in the play-off stages of the season, I’d be surprised if they didn’t take the trophy back to Oulu with them. City: Oulu, Finland
Founded: 1946
Home Arena and Capacity: Oulu Energia Arena (6,614)
Colours: Yellow, Black, White
Championships: 5 (3 times Silver, 5 times Bronze)
Notable Players: Niklas Hagman (Calgary Flames), Joni Pitkanen (Carolina Hurricanes), Lasse Kukkonen (former Philadelphia Flyers), Niklas Backstrom (Minnesota Wild), Pekka Rinne (Nashville Predators), Janne Pesonen (former Pittsburgh Penguins), Pavel Rosa (Former LA Kings, Currently with Karpat), Kamil Kreps (Former Florida Panthers, currently with Karpat)
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