Vaasan Sport

Vaasan Sport
City Vaasa, Finland
League Liiga
Founded 1939
1962 (the ice hockey team)
Home arena Vaasa Arena
Colors Red, black, white
              
Owner(s) HT Vaasan Sport Oy
General manager Ari-Pekka Pajuluoma
Head coach ´Finland Tomek Valtonen
Captain Antti Uitto

Sport, known by its full name as Hockey Team Vaasan Sport OY, is a Finnish ice hockey team playing in Liiga, and is based at Vaasa Arena (capacity 4448) in Vaasa. The team was established in 1939 as IF Sport (Idrottsföreningen Sport).

History

Vaasan Sport was founded in 1939 as IF Sport. The team was involved in the founding of the Finnish top division Liiga, formerly known as SM-Liiga, in 1975, but was relegated only one year later after the 1975-1976 season (roster for their first and only SM-Liiga season).

After the relegation Sport played in the Finnish 1st Division (since then renamed to Mestis), until they were relegated in 1991-1992 to the Finnish Second Division. Climbing back up to the 1st division proved to be a tough task and wasn't accomplished until spring 1997, with the game-winning goal of the deciding game against Kiekko-67 being scored by Kari Teräväinen in overtime.

The 2008-09 season was a success as Sport won the Mestis championship. However, in the league qualification series the team lost the last game to Ässät in a best-of-7 format, thus remaining in Mestis. The overall qualification series were close as Sport at one point was a single goal away from beating Ässät in overtime and being promoted to Liiga, but was unable to score.

Sport struggled with bad economy during the 2000s, which almost led the club to bankruptcy. The club board made improvements to secure the future of the club, cutting down on the budget for the whole new season, as well as installing new head coach and former world ice hockey champion Antti Törmänen, who started to build a new young team from scratch. Eventually the club surfaced from its financial struggles and went ahead to consistently fight for the championship victory again.

In 2014, during the 2013-2014 Mestis season, it was confirmed that Sport would be promoted to Liiga for the 2014-2015 season, regardless of the outcome of the ongoing championship. This was due to former Liiga team Jokerit transferring to KHL, leaving an open slot in the Finnish top division.

Fans

The official fan club is called Red army. The fan club Ultras 06 function as non-official supporters.

Current roster

Updated July 10, 2016.[1]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
17 Finland Blomqvist, SamiSami Blomqvist RW L 26 2015 Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
81 Finland Gröndahl, AriAri Gröndahl D R 27 2011 Helsinki, Finland
60 Finland Järvinen, MikaMika Järvinen G L 28 2015 Hattula, Finland
12 Finland Kankaanperä, MarkusMarkus Kankaanperä D L 36 2016 Skellefteå, Sweden
25 Finland Kiviranta, JoelJoel Kiviranta LW L 20 2014 Vantaa, Finland
36 Finland Kokkala, LassiLassi Kokkala C L 27 2013 Turku, Finland
30 Finland Komulainen, JoonasJoonas Komulainen C L 26 2015 Kuhmo, Finland
21 Finland Körkkö, TomiTomi Körkkö RW L 25 2014 Oulu, Finland
34 Finland Laakso, AleksiAleksi Laakso D L 26 2014 Seinäjoki, Finland
28 Finland Nenonen, MarkusMarkus Nenonen LW L 24 2016 Jämsänkoski, Finland
40 Finland Nordlund, MarkusMarkus Nordlund D L 31 2016 Jämsänkoski, Finland
48 Finland Pukka, MikkoMikko Pukka D L 34 2014 Suodenniemi, Finland
15 Finland Rantamaki, JesseJesse Rantamaki F R 20 2013 Seinäjoki, Finland
32 Finland Rinne, RasmusRasmus Rinne G L 26 2016 Hyvinkää, Finland
13 Finland Riska, ErikErik Riska C L 27 2014 Jakobstad, Finland
24 Finland Riska, FilipFilip Riska C L 31 2016 Jakobstad, Finland
4 Finland Salo, RobinRobin Salo D L 18 2011 Espoo, Finland
6 Finland Saukko, VilleVille Saukko D R 23 2016 Vaasa, Finland
26 Finland Tikka, TommiTommi Tikka LW L 21 2013 Helsinki, Finland
23 Finland Vauhkonen, OlaviOlavi Vauhkonen RW R 27 2016 Helsinki, Finland
39 Finland Viitaluoma, VilleVille Viitaluoma C L 35 2016 Espoo, Finland
27 Finland Väkelä, JesseJesse Väkelä D R 21 2014 Vaasa, Finland
91 Finland Vänttinen, TuomasTuomas Vänttinen C R 33 2015 Savonlinna, Finland
Finland Westermarck, FelixFelix Westermarck LW L 21 2015 Espoo, Finland

Retired numbers

Notable personnel

Former notable players

Former notable coaches

References

  1. ↑ "Joukkue / Vaasan Sport" (in Finnish). www.sport.fi. Retrieved 2012-12-09.
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