Ilves goaltender Lukáš Dostál, 19, and forward Eemeli Suomi, 24, have been named in the Liiga All-Star team for the season 2019-2020. The vote was made by Finnish ice hockey journalists.
Lukáš Dostál finished the 2019-2020 Liiga season leading the goaltending statistics in regulation time wins (27) and winning percentage (73,2). His goals against average 1,78 was the second best and save percentage 92,76 third best in the league.
Dostál was also named Finnish hockey league’s best goaltender of the season 2019-2020. Dostál is the third Ilves goalie in history to be named in the Liiga All-Star team. Before the Czech Republic native the honour has been given to Jukka Tammi in 1989 and Juhani Lahtinen, who was named in the All-Star team five times in a row in 1962-1966.
Ilves academy product Eemeli Suomi was the second-best scorer in the Liiga after recording 57 points (26 goals and 31 assists) in 57 games. He was 4th in goals and 12th in assist in the league. Suomi’s average time on ice per game 20:07 was the 4h biggest among forwards and plus-minus rating +23 was 9th best among all players. While captaining Ilves for the 2nd season Suomi also played five games for the Finnish men’s national team.
Suomi is the third Ilves forward to be named in the Liiga All-Star team in the 2000s. Previously Lasse Oksanen was given the honour nine times, which is a Liiga record, and Raimo Helminen and Raimo Summanen four times.
