Urpo Yrjö Juhani Ylönen (born 25 May 1943 in
Käkisalmi,
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
) is a goaltending coach and a retired professional
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
player who played in the
SM-liiga. He played for
TuTo and
TPS. He was inducted into the
Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988 and to the
IIHF Hall of Fame in 1997.
SM-liiga has named the goalie of the year award after him; the
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 ...
.
After his sporting career, Ylönen has made a renowned career as the head goaltending coach of
TPS. Many European experts have called Ylönen "the best goaltending coach in Europe, if not in the world". Ylönen has been producing top level goalies year after year, including
Miikka Kiprusoff,
Fredrik Norrena,
Antero Niittymäki,
Jani Hurme,
Alexander Salak and
Ari Sulander.
References
External links
Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame page*
1943 births
Living people
People from Priozersk
Finnish ice hockey goaltenders
Ice hockey players at the 1968 Winter Olympics
Ice hockey players at the 1976 Winter Olympics
IIHF Hall of Fame inductees
Olympic ice hockey players for Finland
HC TPS players
TuTo players
{{Finland-icehockey-goaltender-stub