Finland Ice Hockey History

The first women s hockey teams were founded in finland in the early 1970s but it took many years for women s ice hockey to gain enough popularity and participation to warrant the creation of a national league.

Finland ice hockey history. The club was founded in 1897 and started participating in ice hockey in 1929. Until the mid 1980s it was generally accepted that ice hockey derived from english field hockey and indian lacrosse and was spread throughout canada by british soldiers in the mid 1800s. It is one of the six founding leagues of the champions hockey league and currently allocated five spots the maximum number based on success in previous editions. Since then hifk has won the finnish national championship seven times 1969 1970 1974 1980 1983 1998 and 2011.

The finnish ice hockey association finnish. The finnish skating association included ice hockey in its program in 1927 and a year later the first club game was played in tampere. On a midwinter afternoon in finland a chinese ice hockey squad from beijing boys ages 14 to 15 bounded off the team bus and through shin deep snow on their way to play their contemporaries from helsinki. The championship s present format did not take into effect until the league was originally formed for the 1975 76 season under the name of sm liiga preceded by sm sarja.

Sm sarja was established as the first national men s ice hockey league in 1928. The sm liiga is not directly overseen by the finnish ice hockey association but the league and association have an ag. History ice hockey leagues were first established in finland in the 1920s. In the finals the finns faced off against their hockey rivals and host of the 1995 tournament sweden.

It was created in 1975 to replace the sm sarja which was fundamentally an amateur league. National teams edit edit source finland men s national ice hockey team. In 1927 the finnish skating association introduced ice hockey as part of its program and through that organization finland joined the international ice hockey federation iihf in 1928. In 1978 the first lipstick tournament was held creating an informal national women s championship though records of the competition outcomes are not available.

The finnish ice hockey champions is a title awarded annually to the winning team of the top tier ice hockey league in finland which currently is liiga since 2013. Finland reached the final with a 5 0 victory over france in the quarterfinals and a 3 0 victory over the czech republic in the semi finals. Research then turned up mention of a hockeylike game played in the early 1800s in nova scotia by the mi kmaq micmac indians which appeared to have been heavily influenced by the irish. The first ice hockey game was played in finland in 1899.

The game played in helsinki bore characteristics of both bandy and hockey. The sm liiga colloquially called the finnish elite league in english is the top professional ice hockey league in finland. The finnish ice hockey association was formed on 20. Warm winter makes rescuing finland s saimaa seal many degrees more difficult.

Finlands ishockeyförbund is the governing body of ice hockey in finland. Tagged in business society sports.