Dhe signpost in front of the door invites you to dream. New York, Vancouver, Stockholm, Prague. The message is clear: if you buy your equipment here at “Hockey Heaven”, one of Finland’s largest specialty ice hockey shops, you can get it anywhere. In all the places of longing that this sport has to offer.
And whoever then enters the building in an industrial area on the outskirts of the city not only sees hundreds of racquets and ice skates and helmets and pucks, but also sees the jerseys of those who made it: Patrik Laine, Aleksander Barkov, Roope Hintz – today all celebrated stars of the millions in the North American elite league NHL. And above all: everyone from Tampere, who started ice hockey here in the third largest city in Finland.
“Our Ice Hockey Capital”
“Tampere is number one, a real hockey city with two big teams and a new arena,” says Jere Lehtinen, one of the legends of the Finnish national sport. World Champion, Stanley Cup Winner, European Cup Winner, Finnish Champion. Now at the World Cup is the 49-year-old manager of the national team.
Even though he’s from Espoo, not far from Helsinki himself, he knows the importance of Tampere: “Our ice hockey capital.” Which the city proudly wears. A meter-high poster with three cheering fans and the words “Home of Hockey” hangs on a department store in the center.
You believe that immediately when you go on a discovery tour around Tampere. The Finnish Ice Hockey Museum is here, in the city and its suburbs there are almost a dozen ice rinks that are in constant use. From morning to night, children and young people whiz across the ice, which in some halls is not even thawed in the summer. “In the winter, there are open-air ice rinks on every corner,” says Mikael Seppälä, who plays for local top club Tappara. Conditions that you can only dream of in Germany.
Now that the World Cup is on, everything is even bigger: the shop windows are decorated, fans can be seen everywhere, there are screens in numerous places, the games are on in every pub, lanterns and traffic lights are covered with the stickers of the local clubs. There are three big ones, in addition to Tappara and Ilves in the first league there is also the training club Koovee in the second – although the industrial city has just 250,000 inhabitants.
“All hell broke loose in the city”
“But everyone has their fans, ice hockey is part of the culture of the people here,” says Jere Lehtinen. Especially since these are not just any clubs. In the past season, Tappara and Ilves were in first and second place after the main round. Tappara won the Champions League in between. “All hell broke loose in the city,” says national defender Seppälä, “but we players couldn’t celebrate, we still had to play the league play-offs.” Finnish champion.
Now the World Cup is taking place here for the second time in a row. Actually, the tournament was supposed to take place in St. Petersburg this year, but after the war of aggression against Ukraine, the Russians were deprived of the World Cup, and Tampere stepped in with their arena, which opened in 2021. You have the experience, said the Finnish association president Harri Nummela. And people are so crazy about ice hockey that they would fill the hall two years in a row.
That doesn’t always work this year. The arena is only full when the hosts are playing. And they don’t like what the fans have been offered so far. The current world and Olympic champions started with a 4-1 loss to the United States, followed by a tedious 4-3 win against Germany, and then another loss to their eternal rival Sweden.
And the 5: 3 on Wednesday against outsiders France convinced only a few. “Not the easiest evening for us,” admitted captain Marko Anttila. This is not the only reason why many fans believe that it will be difficult with the fourth major title since 2019. The team does not seem as snappy as in previous years. On the other hand: In the group phase it’s all about getting into the quarter-finals anyway. Then everything is possible, especially in Finland’s ice hockey capital.
