FINLAND – Though the major news item from Finland over the weekend has been the death and severe injuries to two Sauna World Championship contestants, there has been some action on the ice as well. The league is going to be facing off soon and the sign of the up and coming season was seen over the last week in a number of traditional tournaments, where the players got their first feel of hockey action since late May. Rauma played host to the traditional Pitsiturnaus and Jyvaskyla saw teams taking part in the Hurricane Cup.

Pitsiturnaus is a tradition in Finnish hockey and this year saw the 2009-2010 finalist teams HPK and TPS take part. Interestingly the first match of the tournament was between the new look teams HPK and TPS. Both teams have undergone radical changes to the rosters, but in the main behind the bench, as both of last years coaches have been replaced (TPS’s Kai Suikkanen left for KHL and HPK’s Jukka Rautakorpi moved to work for the Finnish Ice HockeyAssociation in youth development).  HPK were seen off by TPS in 3-1 score.

However, the talk of the tournament was not about the hockey or the winners of the tournaments, but what happened on the ice. In the match between Lukko and Assat, the referees were kept busy as they sent off three players for fighting and instigating majors. Speaking to the Finnish tabloid Iltalehti Lukko’s Team Manager Mika Kuosmanen said that

“Fighting is somewhat of a tradition at the tournament. The players get their first taste of real action so sometimes emotions go a bit overboard. No one was injured so it’s not such a big thing.”

The hosts, Lukko, skated away as the winners of the whole tournament. Lukko interestingly has been ranked as the favourites to win the championship this season. It had ranked as favourites until it crashed out from the playoffs in the first round. A real disaster to a team that had dominated the regular season.

In Jyvaskyla, JYP, the hosts of the Hurricane Cup, won its own tournament. The tournament had billed HIFK as one of the teams, but it didn’t take its two biggest stars Mikael Granlund (1^st round draft pick at 2010 draft) and Ville Peltonen to the tournament. However, Mikael Granlund’s younger brother, Markus Granlund made his HIFK debut, aged 17. Markus is eligible for 2011 NHL draft and early projections have him going in the second round.

Pro Hockey News will carry on with its team profiles and other SM-Liiga related news in the build up for the 2010-2011 season.

Contact Janne.Virtanen@prohockeynews.com