JYVASKYLA, FINLAND- JYP, Jyvaskyla, has become a phenomenon in the Finnish hockey scene in the last three seasons. The team has risen from its underdog status to a formidable championship contender.
JYP started its life as JyP HT in 1977 and made its SM-Liiga debut in 1985 after being promoted from the first division. The first season showed promise and JYP was fighting for its first playoff spot, but narrowly missed its chance. Back in those days the playoffs were limited to only four teams and JYP finished fifth. However it wasn’t long before the team got the first taste of success when coaching guru Hannu Aravirta coached the team to the finals in his first season (1988-1989) to finish second overall and give JYP its first ever SM-Liiga medal.
The late 1980s and the early 1990s were a golden era for JYP. It got its second silver medal 1992 and bronze in 1993. From the early 1990s though JYP was facing competition from bigger teams and its glory days would soon see an abrupt end. In 1995-96 season JYP was in danger of facing relegation battle but a mid season bench boss change saw the team pull out of last place and avoid the relegation.
Despite the team making the playoffs consistently, it always faced early exits and the players were sent off for an extended summer holiday. However things changed for the start of 2002-2003 season when the team hired Matti Alatalo as its head coach. Apart from the 2006-2007 season, JYP made the play-offs every spring, though it had nothing to bring back home, apart from bruises.
Made In Finland
JYP has often relied on purely Finnish talent. For many years the team did not use any import players and the 2006-2007 season was played purely by Finnish players after Mike Wirril had left the team. But when the team has used import players, it has used good ones. Most recent sign of the scouting in JYP was the Helminen brothers. Despite Dwight and Lars having a Finnish surname, the American brothers put on some spectacular performances in Jyvaskyla.
Another reason for JYP’s consistent success is the Jyvaskyla University. The university has one of the most successful and prominent sports degrees, with specialism in ice hockey coaching and JYP has often given the start to the career for coaches such as former Team Finland head coaches, Hannu Aravirta, Erkka Westerlund and Raimo Summanen. The team’s current head coach, Risto Dufva, was the assistant coach to Team Finland until the 2010 World Championships when he retired from his duties to focus full time on JYP.
Speaking of Dufva, the professor, he was the head coach that brought the first ever championship to Jyvaskyla in 2008-2009. Dufva is somewhat of an acquired taste and has a different way to approach the game and coaching. A good example of this is when a Finnish news paper ran a story saying that JYP had “a snowball’s chance in hell” to win the title, Dufva posted this in the team dressing room and to motivate his team. If the team needed any motivation as at that point it had confirmed its playoff spot and winning the regular season.
The championship came against the league powerhouse Karpat, who were beaten in a clean sweep, as JYP took the series 4-0.
JYP was in contention for its second championship last season as well. Losing to TPS, the eventual champions, many said that JYP got too cocky and confident that they would go through. Maybe it was cockiness as TPS did what Philadelphia would replicate in the NHL a few months after when it won the series against Boston 4-3 after being 3-0 down.
This season JYP has gone with the all Finnish roster and where there aren’t too many big named superstars on the roster, it looks well balanced. JYP will surely be fighting for another top finish in the Finnish league this year.
City: Jyvaskyla, Finland
Founded: 1977
Home Arena and Capacity: Synergia Arena (AKA Hippos), 4,618
Colours: Red, White, Black
Championships: 1 (2 times Silver, 2 times Bronze)
Notable Players: Sami Vatanen (2009 Draftee by Anaheim), Eric Perrin (former Atlanta Thrasher currently with Avangard Omsk), Dwight Helminen (San Jose Sharks), Jaroslav Bednar (Former LA Kings and Florida Panthers now with Avangard Omsk), Michael Nylander (Former Washington Capitals)
Contact Janne.Virtanen@prohockeynews.com
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