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Niklas Bäckström
Niklas Oskar Bäckström (; born 13 February 1978) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey goaltender and current goaltending coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets. He played ten seasons for the Minnesota Wild and Calgary Flames in the National Hockey League (NHL), during which he won both the William M. Jennings Trophy and Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award. He also has won both Urpo Ylönen trophy and Jari Kurri trophy twice. Bäckström is a Swedish-speaking Finn, but also speaks Finnish language, Finnish. Playing career Finland Bäckström won the 1998 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships as a backup goaltender for the Finnish national team, along with players like Olli Jokinen, Niklas Hagman, Mika Noronen, Niko Kapanen, Toni Dahlman and Eero Somervuori. Bäckström was the third goaltender for Finland in the Ice hockey at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Men's tournament, 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, but did not play any games. In the Finnish Liiga, SM-liiga, he played for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HIFK (ice Hockey)
HIFK (a traditional abbreviation of the Swedish name Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors, English: "Sporting Society Comrades, Helsinki") is a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland that plays in the SM-liiga, the sport's top-level league in Finland. The team plays at Helsinki Ice Hall. History IFK Helsingfors was founded in 1897 and started participating in ice hockey in 1928. Since then, HIFK has won the Finnish national championship seven times, of which three (1969, 1970, 1974) were in SM-sarja and four (1980, 1983, 1998, 2011) were in the SM-liiga. HIFK has the highest number of audience in the SM-liiga and is one of the wealthiest sports clubs in Finland. One of the major influences to HIFK was the NHL veteran and Stanley Cup winner Carl Brewer (ice hockey), Carl Brewer. Hired in 1968 as a playing coach, he advocated a North American style of play which has persisted in HIFK since. Brewer's influence on the way ice hockey is played in Finland led to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1998 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships
The 1998 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (''1998 WJHC'') were held in Helsinki and Hämeenlinna, Finland. The championships began on December 25, 1997, and finished on January 3, 1998. Home team Finland was the winner, defeating Russia 2–1 in the gold medal game, thanks to the goaltending of Mika Noronen and the overtime heroics of Niklas Hagman. Switzerland defeated the Czech Republic 4–3 to capture the bronze medal, their first and only medal in the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship. Canada had its five-year title streak broken with its worst placing to date (8th). Canada would miss out on gold seven years in a row before beginning their 2005–2009 streak of five straight championships. It was the only tournament from 1993 to 2012 in which Canada failed to medal. This tournament attracted 139,680 fans to 34 games for an average of 4,108 per game. This set a record for the highest-attended World Junior tournament in Europe until the 2016 tournament, which was also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mika Noronen
Mika Noronen (born 17 June 1979) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey goaltender. He played 71 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks between 2000 and 2006. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1997 to 2016, was mainly spent in Finland. Internationally Noronen played for the Finnish national team at the junior and senior level, including at the 2004 World Championships. Playing career Noronen was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft 21st overall. In his native Finland, he played for Tappara and HPK in the SM-liiga. He also played for the Rochester Americans in the American Hockey League. While with the Rochester Americans, he gained some notoriety in a 2002 game against the Syracuse Crunch. A Crunch forward fired a slap shot past Noronen which hit the cross bar and bounced away. However, the goal judge signaled it was a goal. Play was stopped and the goal was counted. Noronen proceeded to spray t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niklas Hagman
Niklas Hagman (born December 5, 1979) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey forward. He was a third round pick of the Florida Panthers, 70th overall, at the 1999 NHL Entry Draft and made his National Hockey League (NHL) debut with Florida in 2001. He has also played for the Dallas Stars, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames and Anaheim Ducks in the NHL, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the KHL, HIFK, Espoo Blues and Kärpät in the SM-liiga and HC Davos in the Swiss National League A. An accomplished international player, Hagman has represented Finland at three Winter Olympic Games, winning a silver medal in 2006 and bronze at 2010. He played on the Finnish team that reached the final of the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, has appeared in five World Championships and twice played at the World Junior Championships, winning a gold medal in 1998. Playing career Professional Finland Hagman grew up playing with HIFK, appearing with their under-18 and junior teams between 1995 and 199 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olli Jokinen
Olli Veli Pekka Jokinen (born December 5, 1978) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey player. He was selected by the Los Angeles Kings third overall in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, with whom he made his NHL debut. He has also played for the New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, Phoenix Coyotes, Calgary Flames, New York Rangers, Winnipeg Jets, Nashville Predators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and St. Louis Blues. He began his professional career with KalPa and then HIFK (ice hockey), HIFK of the Finnish Liiga, SM-liiga. Additionally, he played for EHC Kloten of Switzerland's National League A and Södertälje SK of Sweden's Swedish Hockey League, Elitserien. He previously held the franchise records for most goals, assists, and points for the Florida Panthers. Jokinen began his professional career in his native Finland in 1996 and in 1997 won the Jarmo Wasama memorial trophy as SM-liiga rookie of the year. He won the Matti Keinonen trophy, Matti Keinonen and Jari Kurri Trophy, Jari Kurri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finnish Language
Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Finnic languages, Finnic language of the Uralic languages, Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland, alongside Swedish language, Swedish. In Sweden, both Finnish and Meänkieli (which has significant mutual intelligibility with Finnish) are official minority languages. Kven language, Kven, which like Meänkieli is mutually intelligible with Finnish, is spoken in the Norway, Norwegian counties of Troms and Finnmark by a minority of Finnish descent. Finnish is morphological typology, typologically agglutinative language, agglutinative and uses almost exclusively Suffix, suffixal affixation. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, Numeral (linguistics), numerals and verbs are inflection, inflected depending on their role in the Sentence (linguistics), sentence. Sentences are normally formed with subject–verb–object word order, alth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swedish-speaking Finn
The Swedish-speaking population of Finland (whose members are called by many names—see below; ; ) is a linguistic minority in Finland. They maintain a strong identity and are seen either as a separate cultural, ethnic or linguistic group or, occasionally, a distinct nationality. They speak Finland Swedish, which encompasses both a standard language and distinct dialects that are mutually intelligible with the dialects spoken in Sweden and, to a lesser extent, other Scandinavian languages. According to Statistics Finland, Swedish is the mother tongue of about 260,000 people in mainland Finland and of about 26,000 people in Åland, a self-governing archipelago off the west coast of Finland, where Swedish is the sole official language. Swedish-speakers comprise 5% of the total Finnish population or about 4.9% without Åland. The proportion has been steadily diminishing since the early 19th century, when Swedish was the mother tongue of approximately 15% of the population and co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jari Kurri Trophy
The Jari Kurri Trophy is an ice hockey trophy awarded by the Finnish Liiga to the best player in the Liiga playoffs. The trophy is named after Jari Kurri. In the 2005–06 season, the trophy was awarded to the player voted the best player in the playoffs by the fans by an SMS vote. This practice was discontinued after only one season. Starting in 2007, in a similar fashion to NHL's Conn Smythe Trophy, the trophy has been awarded to the winner immediately after the final game of the playoffs instead of at the SM-liiga awards ceremony. To date, Jussi Tarvainen in 2001 is the only player who was awarded the trophy while playing for the team that lost the finals. Trophy winners: * 1993-94: Ari Sulander (Jokerit) * 1994-95: Saku Koivu (TPS) * 1995-96: Petri Varis (Jokerit) * 1996-97: Otakar Janecký (Jokerit) * 1997-98: Olli Jokinen (HIFK) * 1998-99: Miikka Kiprusoff (TPS) * 1999-00: Tomi Kallio (TPS) * 2000-01: Jussi Tarvainen (Tappara) * 2001-02: Kari Lehtonen (Jokerit) * 2002-0 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urpo Ylönen Trophy
Urpo is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Urpo Korhonen (1923–2009), Finnish cross-country skier *Urpo Lahtinen, Finnish magazine publisher *Urpo Pikkupeura (born 1957), former ice speed skater from Finland *Urpo Sivula (born 1988), Finnish professional volleyball player *Urpo Ylönen (born 1943), goaltending coach and a retired professional ice hockey player who played in the SM-liiga See also *The Urpo Ylönen trophy is an ice hockey award given by the Finnish SM-liiga to the best goalie of the season {{given name Finnish masculine given names Masculine given names ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award
The Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award, officially billed as the MBNA/MasterCard Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award, was an award in ice hockey given annually to the goaltender who finished the regular season with the best save percentage in the National Hockey League (NHL). Only goaltenders who played 25 games or more in the season were eligible for the award. A goaltender's save percentage represents the percentage of shots on goal that he stops, and is calculated by dividing the number of saves by the total number of shots on goal. The award was first presented at the conclusion of the , and was named in honor of former Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals goaltender Roger Crozier, a Calder and Conn Smythe Trophy winner who played in the NHL from 1964 to 1977. It was presented by the MBNA corporation in memory of Crozier, who worked for the MBNA America Bank after retiring as a player, and died on January 11, 1996. The winner of the trophy received a comme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William M
William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." Shortened familiar versions in English include Will or Wil, Wills, Willy, Willie, Bill, Billie, and Billy. A common Irish form is Liam. Scottish diminutives include Wull, Willie or Wullie (as in Oor Wullie). Female forms include Willa, Willemina, Wilma and Wilhelmina. Etymology William is related to the German given name ''Wilhelm''. Both ultimately descend from Proto-Germanic ''*Wiljahelmaz'', with a direct cognate also in the Old Norse name ''Vilhjalmr'' and a West Germanic borrowing into Medieval Latin ''Willelmus''. The Proto-Germanic name is a compound of *''wiljô'' "will, wish, desire" and *''helmaz'' "helm, helmet".Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxfor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional ice hockey league in the world. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the Stanley Cup playoffs, league playoff champion at the end of each season. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) views the Stanley Cup as one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The NHL is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The National Hockey League was organized at the Windsor Hotel (Montreal), Windsor Hotel in Montreal on November 26, 1917, after the suspension of operations of its predecessor organization, the National Hockey Association (NHA), which had been founded in 1909 at Renfrew, Ontario. The NHL immediately took the NHA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
