Erkka Westerlund (born 30 March 1957, in

Pernå Pernå (, Sweden ; fi, Pernaja) is a former municipality of Finland. Pernå is located in the province of Southern Finland and was part of the Eastern Uusimaa region. The municipality had a population of 3,961 (31 December 2009) and covered an ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

) was the head coach of the

Finnish national men's ice hockey team The Finnish men's national ice hockey team, nickname ''Leijonat / Lejonen'' ("The Lions" in Finnish and Swedish), as it is called in Finland, is governed by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Finland is one of the most successful national ice h ...

. He was appointed head coach on November 1, 2004, and his contract ended in May 2007, after winning World Championship Silver in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

's World Championship tournament. He followed

Raimo Summanen Raimo Olavi Summanen (born March 2, 1962) is a former professional ice hockey forward and the current head coach of HIFK of the Finnish Elite League. He is also a former coach of the Finnish national team. He was selected by the Edmont ...

as head coach of the national team.

Career

Westerlund has coached several Finnish ice hockey teams in the

SM-Liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

: JYP (1985–1988),

Lukko Rauman Lukko (Finnish for "lock") is a Finnish sports club based in Rauma, Finland, best known for its men’s professional ice hockey team. The club was founded as Rauma Woodin Lukko in 1936. The representative team currently plays in the Fi ...

(1989–1991),

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK ) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

(1997–1999) and

Jokerit Helsingin Jokerit (English: Jokers or Jesters) are a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team won six league championships as a member of the Finnish SM-liiga (1973, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, and 2002). Jokerit plays its ...

(1999–2001). During his coaching career Westerlund has won the Finnish Championship once: 1998, with HIFK and finished twice in the second place, in 1999 and 2000. Internationally Westerlund coached Finland in four tournaments, receiving medals in three of them. He has won one Olympic Silver medal (2006) in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, one World Championship Silver (2007) and one World Championship Bronze (2006). As a player Westerlund was a forward. He played in the 1978/1979 season for Jukurit, in 34 games he scored 7 goals and gave 10 assists. In the 1980/1981 season he played for JYP. Here he played 23 games, scoring 3 goals and 1 assist.

References

External links

* JYP Jyväskylä players Mikkelin Jukurit players Living people Finnish ice hockey players 1957 births Finland men's national ice hockey team coaches Ice hockey coaches at the 2014 Winter Olympics People from Pernå Sportspeople from Uusimaa Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic medalists in ice hockey Medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics {{Finland-icehockey-bio-stub