Pentti Matikainen

Pentti Matikainen
Date of birth	5th October 1950
place of birth	Joensuu , Finland
position	striker
Career stations
1975-1977	Jukurit Mikkeli
1977-1980	SaiPa Lappeenranta
1980-1981	Jokipojat Joensuu

Pentti Teuvo Pellervo Matikainen (born October 5, 1950 in Joensuu ) is a former Finnish ice hockey player , functional and coach .

Career

As a player

Matikainen played from the 1975/76 season for Jukurit Mikkeli in what was then the second highest Finnish ice hockey league , the first division. During this season he scored 44 points in 36 games and received 51 penalty minutes. In the following year, the striker was also able to convince with 42 points. In the summer of 1978 he signed a contract with league competitor SaiPa Lappeenranta , for which he was active until 1980. In Lappeenranta he was one of the team's best attackers. His most successful season was the 1979/80 season, when he was used in 36 games and scored 45 times. For the 1980/81 season he moved within the league to Jokipojat Joensuu , but went there only once on the ice and then ended his career.

As a trainer and manager

As early as autumn 1981, a few months after completing his active ice hockey career, Matikainen worked for the first time as a coach for the then Finnish second division club Saimaan Pallo. He was already active as a player for the club between 1977 and 1980. At the end of the 1983/84 season he was named the best coach of the SM-liiga . In 1987 he was hired by the management of the famous Finnish club HIFK Helsinki as head coach, which he coached until 1990. Furthermore, from 1987 he was the coach of the Finnish national team behind the gang with which he won the silver medal at the Winter Olympics in Calgary a year later . Another success with Team Finland was second place at the 1992 World Cup in Czechoslovakia .

After finishing seventh at the 1993 World Cup , Matikainen was fired. This placement was the worst of a Finnish national ice hockey team since 1983. He was eventually replaced by Curt Lindström . For the 1996/97 season he moved to the Frankfurt Lions in the German Ice Hockey League . There his team lost 19 times in 38 games and was thus in the lower half of the table. Matikainen, who was unable to meet expectations, was then released from his service as the Lions' chief trainer. His successor was Peter Obresa . In 2001 he returned to Helsinki to the HIFK and from then on held the position of manager. He held this position until February 2008.

Achievements and Awards

As a trainer

• 1984 SM-liiga coach of the year
• 1988 Silver medal at the Winter Olympics with Finland

Web links

• Pentti Matikainen at hockeydb.com (English)
• Pentti Matikainen at eurohockey.com