HIFK Hockey

HIFK
HIFK
City	Helsinki
League	SM-liiga
Founded	1897
Home arena	Helsingin jäähalli
Colours	Red, white, dark blue;
Owner(s)	HIFK Ligaföreningen rf.
General manager	Jukka Valtanen
Head coach	Ville Peltonen
Captain	Jori Lehterä
Parent club(s)	HIFK
Farm club(s)	Jokipojat
Website	hifk.fi
Championships
Playoff championships	1969, 1970, 1974, 1980, 1983, 1998, 2011

HIFK (a traditional abbreviation of the Swedish name Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors, English: "Sporting Society Comrades, Helsinki") is a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland that plays in the SM-liiga, the sport's top-level league in Finland. The team plays at Helsinki Ice Hall.

History

The club was founded in 1897 and started participating in ice hockey in 1928. Since then, HIFK has won the Finnish national championship seven times, of which three (1969, 1970, 1974) were in SM-sarja and four (1980, 1983, 1998, 2011) were in the SM-liiga. HIFK has the highest number of audience in the SM-liiga and is one of the wealthiest sports clubs in Finland.^{[citation needed]}

One of the major influences to HIFK was the NHL veteran and Stanley Cup winner Carl Brewer. Hired in 1968 as a playing coach, he advocated a North American style of play which has persisted in HIFK since. Brewer's influence on the way ice hockey is played in Finland led to his posthumous induction to the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003.

The championship team from 1998 is widely recognized as one of the best ever to have skated together in the top flight of Finnish ice hockey.^{[citation needed]} Players on the 1998 championship team included a number of future (and former) NHL players – including Tim Thomas, Jan Čaloun, Johan Davidsson, Bob Halkidis, Olli Jokinen, Jere Karalahti, Jarno Kultanen, Brian Rafalski, Christian Ruuttu, Jarkko Ruutu, Kimmo Timonen and Marko Tuomainen.

HIFK's general manager starting from May 1, 2008, is Jukka Valtanen. He is the successor of Pentti Matikainen, who coached Team Finland to its first hockey Olympic medal (silver) in Calgary 1988.

Team identity

Logos and jerseys

HIFK uses a shield for their logo, with a four pointed star and text I.F.K. and year of formation 1897 on it. They wear red, white and blue colored jerseys, and have worn those colors since their beginnings. For the 1993-94 season, HIFK changed their logo to a five pointed star with text saying HIFK Hockey on it. Unpopular with fans, and HIFK wanting to modernize their brand, changed their logo again in 1996 to a red big cat on a blue circle. Commonly referred to as "petologo" (English: "beast logo") among fans. When the beast logo became HIFK's primary logo for the 1996-97 season, they reintroduced the original shield logo to become their jersey's new shoulder patches. For the 2008-09 season, HIFK made their original shield logo the primary logo once again. It would swap places with the beast logo on the jerseys, making the beast logo their new shoulder patches until 2017, when the beast logo was eliminated from the jerseys entirely.

HIFK's shield logo, used as their primary logo in 1928-1993, 2008-present; a well as their secondary logo in 1996-2008.
HIFK's star logo, used as their primary logo in 1993-1996.
The four-pointed star is the earliest emblem of IFK clubs (Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna).

Home arena

HIFK play their home games at Helsinki Ice Hall. The stadium opened in 1966, and seats up to 8 200 spectators. The arena was also used and shared by rival team Jokerit until 1997, when they moved to the Hartwall Arena. HIFK is well known for playing classic hard rock music during games in Helsinki Ice Hall.

Goal song: "Flamethrower" by The J. Geils Band.
Opening songs: "Hail To The King" by Avenged Sevenfold, "Ghost Riders" by Steve Hunter, and "Whatever You Want" by Status Quo.
Penalty songs: "Who Are You" by The Who when the visiting team takes a penalty. "Bad To The Bone" by George Thorogood when the home team takes a penalty.
Other noteworthy songs: "Let's Play Hockey" by Bill Misener, "Red White & Blue" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Go IFK" by Jake & Co.

Rivalries

HIFK are rivals with Jokerit; games were often sold out and were in the later years among the fiercest in Nordic ice hockey, but are no longer played following Jokerit's withdrawal from Liiga after the 2013–14 season to join the Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Following a history of even series of games, HIFK won the game total with 106–105 after a 2–1 victory in a classical outdoor game in March 2014, claiming the title of Helsinki's dominion.^[1]

Honors

SM-sarja

SM-sarja Kanada-malja: 1969, 1970, 1974
SM-sarja Kanada-malja: 1973, 1975
SM-sarja Kanada-malja: 1955, 1959, 1971, 1972

SM-liiga

SM-liiga Kanada-malja: 1980, 1983, 1998, 2011
SM-liiga Kanada-malja: 1986, 1999, 2016
SM-liiga Kanada-malja: 1982, 1987, 1988, 1992, 2004, 2018, 2021

International

Ahearne Cup (1): 1970
Tampere Cup (2): 1994, 2015
IIHF European Cup (1): 1980–81
Nordic Trophy (1): 2008

Other awards for the club:

Harry Lindblad trophy (SM-Liiga regular season winner, since 1975): 2016

Players

Current roster

Updated 22 September 2024^[2]


No.	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
50	Rastislav Eliáš	G	L	20	2024	Nyíregyháza, Hungary
79	Santeri Hartikainen	C	R	25	2023	Helsinki, Finland
85	Bruno Jalasti	D	R	18	2024	Helsinki, Finland
61	Juhani Jasu	C	R	36	2024	Eurajoki, Finland
82	Aatu Karjalainen	W	L	19	2024	Hyvinkää, Finland
24	Aleksanteri Kaskimäki	C	L	20	2022	Espoo, Finland
33	Aron Kiviharju	D	L	18	2023	Esbjerg, Denmark
3	Ronald Knot	D	R	30	2024	Prague, Czech Republic
77	Petr Kodÿtek	C	L	26	2024	Sušice, Czech Republic
47	Leo Komarov	W	L	37	2023	Narva, Estonian SSR, Soviet Union
21	Jori Lehterä (A)	C	L	36	2023	Espoo, Finland
40	Petteri Lindbohm (A)	D	L	31	2023	Helsinki, Finland
83	Einari Luhanka	D	L	25	2022	Helsinki, Finland
14	Oskari Manninen	D	L	33	2023	Vantaa, Finland
43	Vincent Marleau	RW	R	25	2023	Saint-Michel, Quebec, Canada
2	Luke Martin (A)	D	R	26	2023	St. Louis, Missouri, United States
11	Ilari Melart (C)	D	L	35	2022	Helsinki, Finland
63	Panu Mieho	C	L	29	2024	Helsinki, Finland
71	Daniel Mäkiaho	RW	L	23	2024	Kauniainen, Finland
4	Niklas Nykyri	D	L	18	2024	Joensuu, Finland
81	Iiro Pakarinen (A)	RW	R	33	2021	Suonenjoki, Finland
55	Valtteri Piironen	RW	L	19	2024	Helsinki, Finland
88	Joonas Rask	RW	R	34	2023	Savonlinna, Finland
78	Jesse Seppälä	LW	L	22	2022	Espoo, Finland
6	Tony Sund	D	L	29	2023	Pedersöre, Finland
30	Roope Taponen	G	L	23	2021	Espoo, Finland
10	Kristian Vesalainen (A)	LW	L	25	2022	Helsinki, Finland
90	Eemil Vinni	G	L	18	2022	Vantaa, Finland
45	Micke-Max Åsten	C	L	32	2014	Helsinki, Finland

Honored members

1 Stig Wetzell, 1972–83
5 Heikki Riihiranta, 1967–83
7 Simo Saarinen, 1980–96
9 Kimmo Kuhta, 1996–2013
17 Matti Murto, 1964–83
20 Matti Hagman, 1972–92
22 Mika Kortelainen, 1987–2002
23 Pertti Lehtonen, 1976–98
35 Sakari Lindfors, 1985–2002

HIFK players getting ready for a game in 1971

NHL alumni

Other notable alumni

Dave Siciliano, player-coach during the 1971–72 season^[3]^[4]

References

^ "HIFK vei ikuisen Stadin herruuden (in Finnish)". Ilta-Sanomat. 1 March 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
^ https://hifk.fi/pelaajat/
^ "Dave Siciliano". Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. Thunder Bay, Ontario. 1995. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
^ Turchansky, Ray (September 20, 1996). "From bantam to junior in single bound". Edmonton Journal. Edmonton, Alberta. p. 26.

External links

Official website (in Finnish)

[1] "HIFK vei ikuisen Stadin herruuden (in Finnish)". Ilta-Sanomat. 1 March 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2018.

[2] ttps://hifk.fi/pelaajat/

[3] "Dave Siciliano". Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. Thunder Bay, Ontario. 1995. Retrieved August 7, 2021.

[4] Turchansky, Ray (September 20, 1996). "From bantam to junior in single bound". Edmonton Journal. Edmonton, Alberta. p. 26.

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v t e Liiga
Seasons	1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
Current teams (2024–25)	HIFK HPK Ilves Mikkelin Jukurit JYP Jyväskylä KalPa Kiekko-Espoo KooKoo Oulun Kärpät Lukko Lahti Pelicans SaiPa Vaasan Sport Tappara HC TPS Porin Ässät
Former teams	FPS Jokerit Jokipojat Koovee TUTO Hockey
Trophies and awards	Kanada-malja Kultainen kypärä Kalevi Numminen Jarmo Wasama memorial Matti Keinonen Raimo Kilpiö Urpo Ylönen Pekka Rautakallio Aarne Honkavaara Veli-Pekka Ketola Lasse Oksanen Jari Kurri Unto Wiitala
Other	Mestis Suomi-sarja 2. Divisioona 3. Divisioona Finland men's national ice hockey team SM-sarja (defunct) Naisten Liiga Naisten Mestis Finland women's national ice hockey team U20 SM-sarja Finland men's national junior ice hockey team
IIHF IIHF Continental Cup IIHF European Champions Cup

Authority control databases
International	ISNI
National	Finland