History
1931 – Ilves was founded in the Tampereen Lyseo high school. The first chairman of the club was Mr. Niilo Tammisalo.
1932 – The club’s first official ice hockey game was played on the ice of Lake Näsijärvi. Ilves was defeated 2-1 by TaPa (Tampereen Palloilijat). Reino Lahtinen scored for Ilves.
1934 – Ilves finished third, claiming the bronze medals, in the Finnish national championship.
1936 – Ilves won the Finnish ice hockey championship for the first time in club history.
1942 – Having been undefeated for 4 years, Ilves finally lost a game in Hämeenlinna as Tarmo put an end to the spectacular run of 34 consecutive wins.
1947 – Ilves won the Finnish title for the third year in a row. This was the club’s sixth national championship.
1950-1952 – The club won three consecutive Finnish championships without losing once.
1957 – The tenth national championship for Ilves.
1965 – The first Finnish indoor ice stadium, The Hakametsä Arena, was built in Tampere. The modernized Hakametsä is still the home venue of Ilves.
1970 – Ilves finished second in the championship for the third consecutive year. The team claimed a top 3 position for 9 years in a row (2 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals in 1963-1970).
1972 – The club won its 15th Finnish championship. The Canadian superstar Len Lunde was Ilves’ first foreign player and also coached the team.
1976-1982 – The dry years. No medals for Ilves.
1985 - Ilves won its 16th national title, beating TPS in a thrilling best-of-five finals. The Turku team won the first two games, but Ilves came back to win the championship in what is considered the greatest comeback ever in Finnish hockey.
1990 – Ilves finished second. TPS won the finals 4 games to 2.
1998 – With no top 3 finishes in the last seven seasons, Ilves once again made the finals under the guidance of Russian coach Vladimir Jursinov jr. IFK Helsinki dominated the series and claimed the title 3 games to 0.
2001 – Ilves claimed a surprising third position in the championship.
2003 – One of the saddest seasons in club history ended. Ilves finished last in the league.
2004 – Czech coach Vaclav Sykora coached Ilves to a respectable sixth place finish.
2005 – After the bad autumn season, the line constisting of Canadian Steve Kariya, Atlanta Trashers’ Czech Patrik Stefan and Hannes Hyvönen helped Ilves to reach a seventh position.
2006 – Ilves improved its position by one, finishing sixth.
2008 – One of the greatest Ilves players, Raimo Helminen, retired. The season ended in the tight quarter finals against Kärpät Oulu.
2010 – Ilves finished last in the regular season but won the relegation series.
2011 – Ilves, consisting mostly of young players, reached a eighth position.
Contact information
Ilves-Hockey Oy
Takojankatu 2 B (2nd floor)
33540 Tampere
tel. +358 3 225 9400
fax +358 3 225 9444
e-mail: ilves(at)ilves.com
or
forename.surname(at)ilves.com
