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JYP is an ice hockey team playing in the Finnish top division Liiga. They play in Jyväskylä, Finland, at the LähiTapiola Areena.
TPS or Turun Palloseura is an ice hockey team and 10-time champion of SM-liiga and 1-time champion of SM-sarja. They play in Turku, Finland, at Gatorade Center. In terms of championships, TPS is the second all-time most successful team in SM-Liiga, right behind Tappara.
Porin Ässät, officially named Hockey Club Ässät Pori and colloquially known as Pata, is a professional ice hockey club based in Pori, Finland. It competes in the SM-liiga, the highest-ranking league of ice hockey in Finland. Since 1971, Ässät has played its games in the Isomäki Ice Hall.
Steven Tetsuo Kariya is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger and younger brother of former National Hockey League player Paul Kariya. Kariya was born in North Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Veli-Pekka Ketola trophy is a Finnish ice hockey trophy awarded by the Liiga to the player who scores the most points during regular season play. It was first awarded to Henry Saleva of Kärpät in the 1977–78 SM-liiga season. The trophy was renamed in honour of Veli-Pekka Ketola in 1995.
The Pekka Rautakallio trophy is an ice hockey award given by the Finnish Liiga to the best defenceman of the season. In 1995 the award was renamed to carry the name of its first winner Pekka Rautakallio. In 2019 it was awarded to Oliwer Kaski of Pelicans.
The Jarmo Wasama Memorial Trophy is an ice hockey award given by the Finnish Liiga to the best rookie of the season. The trophy is named in honor of Jarmo Wasama, a young Finnish defenseman who was killed in an automobile accident in 1966. In 2020 it was awarded to Matias Maccelli of Ilves.
The Kalevi Numminen trophy is an ice hockey award given by the Finnish Liiga to the best coach of the season. In 2019 it was awarded to Antti Pennanen of HPK.
Tony Virta is a Finnish former professional ice hockey forward. He was drafted by the Minnesota Wild as their fourth-round pick in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.
Pekka Olavi "Rocky" Rautakallio is a Finnish former professional ice hockey defenceman and coach. He played 14 seasons in Finland's SM-sarja and SM-liiga between 1968 and 1987 for Ässät and HIFK Helsinki, during which he was a five-time Finnish All-Star. Rautakallio was a member of Ässät's championship team that won the Kanada-malja in 1978. He was named the best defenceman of the SM-liiga in 1978, 1979 and 1986; the league later named the award the Pekka Rautakallio trophy in his honour. Internationally, Rautakallio played with the Finnish national team in seven World Championships and two Canada Cup tournaments.
Kim Michael Hirschovits-Gerz is a Finnish former professional ice hockey forward and current sports manager of Kiekko-Espoo in the Mestis. During his playing career, he skated in the Finnish Liiga with HIFK, Jokerit, the Espoo Blues, and Oulun Kärpät; in the Swedish Elitserien with Timrå IK and Luleå HF; and in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod and Dinamo Minsk. Hirschovits was drafted by the New York Rangers as their sixth-round pick, 194th overall, in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.
Marko Tuulola is a retired Finnish professional ice hockey defenceman.
Hannu Markus Virta is a retired Finnish professional ice hockey defenceman. He was named the best defenceman in the Finnish Elite League (SM-liiga) four times, and was a five-time all-star. He also won the Jarmo Wasama memorial trophy as rookie of the year in 1981–82.
Mikkelin Jukurit is a professional ice hockey team in Liiga, the top tier Finnish ice hockey league. They play in Mikkeli, Finland, at the Kalevankankaan jäähalli. The team has won 7 Mestis championships.
Pekka Laksola is a Finnish ice hockey coach. He played a long career for Tappara of the Finnish SM-liiga and later also for Berlin Capitals in Germany and Hockey Club de Reims in France. He also represented Finland men's national ice hockey team three times in the ice hockey World Championships.
Matias Haaranen is a Finnish/Romanian ice hockey defenceman. He is currently playing with the HK Gyergyoi in the Hungarian Erste Liga and Romanian Campionatul National leagues.
Patrik Virta is a Finnish professional ice hockey forward who is currently an unrestricted free agent. He most recently played under contract with ERC Ingolstadt in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Virta was selected by the New York Rangers in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.
The 2019–20 SM-liiga season was the 45th season of the SM-liiga, the top level of ice hockey in Finland, since the league's formation in 1975. The last two game days of the regular season were scheduled to be played in front of an empty arena due to the Finnish government advising that all public events with more than 500 attendees would be cancelled or postponed. On 13 March, the rest of the season, which included the final round of the regular season and all of playoffs, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Päivi Virta is a Finnish retired ice hockey defenseman and one of the most highly decorated women in the history of Finnish ice hockey. As a member of the Finnish national team she won five World Championship bronze medals and five European Championship medals, four gold and one bronze.
The 2021–22 SM-liiga season was the 47th season of the SM-liiga, the top level of ice hockey in Finland, since the league's formation in 1975.
