Raimo Olavi Kilpiö (born 2 February 1936 in

Parikkala Parikkala () is a municipality of Finland located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the South Karelia region, from Lappeenranta and from Joensuu. The town center of Parikkala is about from the Russian border. The municipality ...

, Finland) is a retired professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player who played 459 games 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 ...

and its predecessor SM-sarja from 1953 to 1977. During his career he scored 261 goals and 492 points. He played for

Ilves Ilves (; Finnish for " Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena. The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the coat of arms of the city ...

, RU-38, and

Ässät Ässät or Ässä may refer to: * HC Ässät Pori Oy, Finnish sports club ** Porin Ässät (men's ice hockey) ** Porin Ässät (women's ice hockey) ** Porin Ässät (men's football) ** PATA (esports) *, Finnish band from Oulu *S Group, Finnish Con ...

. He is a six-time Finnish Champion and once won the bronze medal. He competed at the

1960 Winter Olympics The 1960 Winter Olympics (officially the VIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Squaw Valley 1960) were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort (now known as Palisades Tahoe) in Squaw Vall ...

and the

1964 Winter Olympics The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games (german: IX. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1964 ( bar, Innschbruck 1964, label=Austro-Bavarian), was a winter multi-sport event which was celebr ...

. He was inducted into the

Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame The Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame is housed in and administered by the ('Finnish Ice Hockey Museum'), a part of the Vapriikki Museum Centre, in Tampere, Finland. The was founded in 1979 with the mission to record, document, and exhibit objects, ...

in 1985.

Career

Kilpiö made his SM-sarja debut with Ilves during the 1953–54 season. Kilpiö was one of the best forward stars of his time. Among other things, he was chosen four times as the best forward in the SM-sarja. Kilpiö won the Finnish championship six times, the first four of which came with

, one in RU-38 and one in

. In SM-sarja and

, Kilpiö scored 492 points in 459 matches. In football, Kilpiö won the silver medal in the national championship with

TaPa Tapa, TAPA, Tapas or Tapasya may refer to: Media *Tapas (website), a webtoon site, formerly known as Tapastic * ''Tapas'' (film), a 2005 Spanish film * ''Tapasya'' (1976 film), an Indian Hindi-language film * ''Tapasya'' (1992 film), a Nepalese f ...

in 1962. In the same year, he also played one B national match. In 1956, Kilpiö won the A-junior district championship in TaPa's team, which also featured footballer Matti Mäkelä and Kilpiö's teammate from Ilves, Räshid Hakimsan. Today, the SM-liiga annually awards the

Raimo Kilpiö trophy The Raimo Kilpiö trophy is an ice hockey trophy awarded by the Finnish Liiga to the player who has shown the most sportsmanship and good behaviour as well as high quality performance for their team. It is named after Raimo Kilpiö who played in the ...

, which is given to the league's gentleman player of the year. Ässät have retired Kilpiö's number 11. The jersey has been raised to the rafters of the Isomäki Areena in the colors of RU-38.

References

External links

Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame page
1936 births Living people Porin Ässät (men's ice hockey) players Ice hockey players at the 1960 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1964 Winter Olympics Ilves players Olympic ice hockey players of Finland People from Parikkala Sportspeople from South Karelia {{Finland-icehockey-player-stub