Kiekko-Espoo Naiset | |
---|---|
City | Espoo, Finland |
League | Naisten Liiga |
Founded | 1989 |
Home arena | Tapiolan harjoitusareena |
Colours | Navy, gold, blue |
Owner(s) | Kiekko-Espoo Oy |
General manager | Emma Terho |
Head coach | Sami Haapanen |
Captain | Reetta Valkjärvi |
Affiliates | Kiekko-Espoo Akatemia Kiekko-Espoo Challenger |
Website | Official website |
Franchise history | |
1989–1992 | Espoon Kiekkoseura (EKS) |
1992–1998 | Kiekko-Espoo |
1998–2016 | Espoo Blues |
2016–17 | Espoo United |
2017–2019 | Espoo Blues |
2019– | Kiekko-Espoo |
Championships | |
Aurora Borealis Cup | 16 (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2022) |
Current season |
Kiekko-Espoo Naiset are an ice hockey team in the Naisten Liiga. They play in the Tapiola district of Espoo, Finland at the harjoitusareena ('training arena') of the Tapiolan urheilupuisto. [1] The team was founded as Espoon Kiekkoseura or EKS in 1989 and has also been known as Espoo Blues Naiset and Espoo United Naiset during its tenure in the Naisten Liiga. Kiekko-Espoo have won the Aurora Borealis Cup as the Finnish Champions in women's ice hockey sixteen times, six more wins than any other team in league history; at least one Finnish Championship medal (gold, silver, or bronze) was won under each of the four names.
The parent club, Kiekko-Espoo Oy, also has a representative men's ice hockey team in the Mestis, a representative ringette team in the Ringeten SM-sarja, and active sections in minor and junior ice hockey and youth ringette.
The team entered Naisten SM-sarja (now Naisten Liiga) in the 1990–91 season under the name Espoon Kiekkoseura or EKS. The two seasons played as EKS were an impressive showing for the newcomers and each resulted in a bronze medal, one in the 1990–91 season after defeating Ässät and one in the 1991–92 season after defeating KalPa.
Several EKS players also played for the bronze medal winning Finnish women's national team at the 1992 IIHF World Championship including Liisa Karikoski, Katri-Helena Luomajoki, and Hanna Teerijoki. [2]
In 1992 EKS was renamed Kiekko-Espoo, the same name as its brother-team in the Liiga. The team continued to be held to bronze or lower finishes, qualifying for five bronze medal series in six years and winning four of them (1993, 1994, 1997, 1998).
The team was renamed Espoo Blues in 1998, continuing the trend of sharing the name of its brother-team in the Liiga, which also renamed Espoo Blues in that year. The name change unwittingly marked the beginning of a "golden age" for the team. Starting with their first SM-sarja gold medal in 1999, after achieving victory over JYP Jyväskylä in the finals, they went on to win a staggering seven consecutive championships (1999–2005) and a total of thirteen championships in eighteen years. The Blues were kept off the SM-sarja medal podium only three times in the 1998–2016 span; in addition to their championship titles, they earned the team's first silver medal in 2009 and two more bronze medals in 2006 and 2016.
The Espoo Blues were also strong competitors at international tournaments in this period, earning medals at six IIHF European Women's Champions Cups: three silver medals (2005, 2007-08, 2009-10) and three bronze medals (2008-09, 2013–14, 2014–15). [3]
In March 2016 Jääkiekko Espoo Oy, the parent club of both the Espoo Blues of the Naisten Liiga and Espoo Blues of the Liiga, declared bankruptcy with estimated liabilities of approximately €3 million. [4] In response, Jussi Salonoja, a Finnish millionaire and film director who had previously owned the Espoo Blues franchise from 2002–2012, created a new club and organization called Espoo United Oy, [5] stating that he was "committed to supporting hockey in Espoo." [6] The Espoo Blues men's and women's basketball and ice hockey teams would play for Espoo United.
For the 2016–17 season the Espoo United women's ice hockey team played in the Naisten SM-sarja and won silver in the 2017 Finnish Championship. The Espoo United men's team played in the Mestis, the league below the premier-level Liiga, where they won bronze in the playoffs.
On 15 August 2017 Salonoja announced that the Espoo United was abandoning its women's ice hockey and basketball teams for financial reasons. [7] “The reason is twofold: the men's teams' budgets are far greater than those of women's teams, so their running is more demanding, but on the other hand, [the men's teams] are more interesting to sponsors and audiences,” Salonoja said. [8] [9]
The future of women's ice hockey team was left uncertain and many possible solutions were proposed, including being acquired by HIFK [10] or merging with Espoo Blues Juniorit (a junior club with strong ties to the franchise). [8]
In September 2017 the Finnish Ice Hockey Association announced that it had supported the creation of an independent association, Ysikoppi ry, to oversee the team and had given its approval for the team to compete in the upcoming 2017–18 season under the name Espoo Blues. [11] [12]
This is a partial list of the most recent seasons completed by the franchise. The team was called the “Espoo Blues” during the 2015–16, 2017–18, and 2018–19 seasons; “Espoo United” in the 2016–17 season, and “Kiekko-Espoo” from the 2019–20 season onward.
Note: Finish = Rank at end of regular season; GP = Games played; W = Wins (3 points); OTW = Overtime wins (2 points); OTL = Overtime losses (1 point); L = Losses (0 points); GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; Pts = Points
Season | League | Regular season | Post season results | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Finish | GP | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF | GA | Pts | Top scorer | |||
2015–16 | Naisten SM-sarja | 2nd | 28 | 19 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 162 | 67 | 64 | L. Välimäki 70 (31+39) | Won bronze medal, 1–0 (Kärpät) |
2016–17 | Naisten SM-sarja | 2nd | 28 | 17 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 109 | 68 | 58 | L. Välimäki 60 (29+31) | Lost final, 2–3 (Kärpät) |
2017–18 | Naisten Liiga | 3rd | 30 | 16 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 125 | 74 | 56 | E. Rakkolainen 27 (16+11) | 4th: Lost bronze medal, 0–1 (Kuortane) |
2018–19 | Naisten Liiga | 1st | 30 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 164 | 58 | 71 | A. Rajahuhta 66 (36+30) | Won Championship, 3–0 (Ilves) |
2019–20 | Naisten Liiga | 1st | 30 | 20 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 145 | 60 | 68 | E. Rakkolainen 42 (13+29) | Won semi-final, 3–0 (Team Kuortane); Finals cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic |
2020–21 | Naisten Liiga | 1st | 27 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 124 | 46 | 65 | N. Laitinen 37 (13+24) | Won Championship, 3–1 (KalPa) |
2021–22 | Naisten Liiga | 1st | 30 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 182 | 44 | 83 | E. Holopainen 56 (29+27) | Won Championship, 3–2 (HIFK) |
2022–23 | Naisten Liiga | 3rd | 36 | 23 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 142 | 70 | 74 | A. Montonen 42 (21+21) | Lost final, 0–3 (HIFK) |
2023–24 | Naisten Liiga | 1st | 32 | 24 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 168 | 66 | 79 | E. Nuutinen 63 (28+35) | Lost final, 1–3 (HIFK) |
Source(s): Finnish Ice Hockey Association [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]
Coaching staff and team personnel
Players holding franchise records per documentation available from the 1992–93 season through the conclusion of the 2023–24 season. Data from the 1990–91 and 1991–92 seasons is incomplete and has not been included.
Only skaters appearing in more than thirty games and goaltenders appearing in more than ten games with Kiekko-Espoo are included.
Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game
Player | Pos | GP | G | A | Pts | P/G |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Karoliina Rantamäki | F | 338 | 355 | 284 | 639 | 1.89 |
Petra Vaarakallio | F | 286 | 280 | 351 | 631 | 2.21 |
Annina Rajahuhta | F | 232 | 192 | 234 | 426 | 1.84 |
Linda Välimäki | F | 151 | 174 | 186 | 360 | 2.38 |
Minttu Tuominen | D | 241 | 116 | 244 | 340 | 1.49 |
Oona Parviainen | F | 223 | 119 | 143 | 262 | 1.18 |
Emma Nuutinen | F | 123 | 113 | 127 | 240 | 1.95 |
Piia Lallukka | F | 195 | 101 | 138 | 239 | 1.23 |
Emma Terho | D | 262 | 54 | 173 | 227 | 0.87 |
Tinja Haukijärvi | F | 196 | 117 | 108 | 225 | 1.15 |
Seasons active with Kiekko-Espoo listed alongside player name. [20]
Sanna Kristiina Lankosaari is a Finnish ice hockey coach and retired player. She most recently served as head coach of Oulun Kärpät Naiset in the Naisten Liiga (NSML) during the 2022–23 season and part of the 2023–24 season.
Minnamari "Minttu" Tuominen is a Finnish ice hockey player, currently playing in the Naisten Liiga (NSML) with Kiekko-Espoo. A member of the Finnish national ice hockey team since 2008, she has earned medals at three Winter Olympic Games and five IIHF World Women's Championships.
Emma Nuutinen is a Finnish ice hockey player, currently playing in the Naisten Liiga (NSML) with Kiekko-Espoo. As a member of the Finnish women's national ice hockey team, she participated in both the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics and won bronze at the 2018 Olympic Games.
Ella Viitasuo is a Finnish ice hockey player and member of the Finnish national team. She most recently played during the 2022–23 season with HV71 of the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL).
Ice hockey is the most popular sport in Finland in terms of television viewership and game attendance figures. It is third most popular sport in participation amongst children. As of 2020, approximately 1.3% of the Finnish population was registered with the International Ice Hockey Federation, ranking Finland second in the world for percentage of population participating in ice hockey and the highest percentage of any country outside of North America.
Satu Tuominen is a Finnish retired ice hockey player. She played in more than 110 international matches with the Finnish national team, won two IIHF Women's World Championship bronze medals, and participated in the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2006 Winter Olympics. With the Finnish national team, she won IIHF Worlds bronze medals in 2004 and 2009.
Naisten Liiga, also called the Naisten SM-liiga (NSML) and Jääkiekon naisten SM-liiga, is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Finland. Founded by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association as the Naisten SM-sarja in 1982, it was so known until being rebranded as the Naisten Liiga in 2017. The league comprises approximately 250 players across ten teams.
The Aurora Borealis Cup is the trophy awarded by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association to the victorious team of the Naisten Liiga playoffs, the Finnish Champion in women's ice hockey.
HIFK Naiset, also known as Stadin Gimmat, are an ice hockey team in the Finnish Naisten Liiga. They play in the Pirkkola district of Helsinki at the Pirkkolan jäähalli. The team is operated by Oy HIFK-Hockey Ab, the same organization that owns the HIFK men's ice hockey team of the Liiga – HIFK Naiset are one of only two Naisten Liiga teams owned directly by a Liiga team.
Tampereen Ilves Naiset are an ice hockey team in the Naisten Liiga, the premier women's ice hockey league in Finland. They are the representative women's team of the multi-sport club Ilves, based in Tampere, Pirkanmaa, and their home arena is the Tesoman jäähalli in Tampere's Tesoma district. They are the only team to have iced a team every season since the establishment of the Naisten SM-sarja in 1982. The team ranks second on the list of most Aurora Borealis Cup wins, with ten, and has claimed the most Finnish Championship medals in league history, with ten gold, twelve silver, and six bronze for 28 total medals.
Essi Sieversnée Hallvar is a Finnish retired ice hockey defenceman. She played 91 international matches with the Finnish national team and won bronze at the 2011 IIHF Women's World Championship. Sievers competed at the elite club level for 15 seasons; she played 14 seasons in the Finnish Naisten SM-sarja and one season in the German Women's Ice Hockey Bundesliga (DFEL).
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 2019–20 Naisten Liiga season was the thirty-seventh season of the Naisten Liiga, the premier level of women's ice hockey in Finland, since the league’s establishment in 1982.
The 2020–21 Naisten Liiga season was the thirty-eighth season of the Naisten Liiga, Finland's elite women's ice hockey league, since the league's creation in 1982. The season began, as scheduled, on 5 September 2020, making the Naisten Liiga the first women's national ice hockey league in Europe and, quite likely, in the world to return to play for the 2020–21 season.
The Karoliina Rantamäki Award is an ice hockey trophy awarded by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association to the playoff MVP of the Naisten Liiga, called the Naisten SM-sarja during 1982 to 2017. The Naisten SM-sarja Playoff MVP trophy was first awarded in the 1999–2000 season and the first recipient was forward Kati Kovalainen of Espoo Blues Naiset.
JYP Naiset or JYP Jyväskylä Naiset is a Finnish ice hockey team in the Naisten Mestis. Their home is the Jyväskylän harjoitusjäähalli in Jyväskylä, Central Finland. JYP Naiset have won the Aurora Borealis Cup three times, in 1997, 1998, and 2016.
The 2021–22 Naisten Liiga season was the thirty-ninth season of the Naisten Liiga, the premier level of women's ice hockey in Finland, since the league's establishment as the Naisten SM-sarja in 1982. The season began on 11 September 2021 and concluded on 20 March 2022.
Katariina "Kati" Ahonen is a Finnish retired ice hockey goaltender. A ten-season member of the Finnish national ice hockey team, she won bronze medals at the IIHF Women's World Championships in 1992 and 1994, and participated in five IIHF European Women Championships, winning gold at the tournaments in 1989, 1991, 1993, and 1995, and bronze at the 1996 tournament.
Katja Lavonius is a Finnish retired ice hockey player and former general manager of the Espoo Blues Naiset. As a member of the Finnish national ice hockey team, she won bronze medals at the IIHF Women's World Championships in 1990 and 1994, and gold medals at the IIHF European Women Championships in 1991 and 1993.
Anni-Elina Montonen is a Finnish ice hockey player and member of the Finnish national team, currently playing in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) with HV71 Dam.
Syy kaksijakoinen: miesten joukkueiden budjetit ovat selvästi suuremmat kuin naisten joukkueissa, eli niiden toiminnan pyörittäminen on vaativampaa, mutta toisaalta juuri ne kiinnostavat sponsoreita ja yleisöä enemmän, Salonoja sanoo.