Tappara
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Tammerfors Bollklubb (1932–1955) Tappara (since 1955) |
| Location | Tampere , Finland |
| Club colors | |
| league | Liiga |
| Venue | Tampereen jäähalli |
| capacity | 7,800 seats (including 6,635 seats) |
| executive Director | Mikko Leinonen |
| Head coach | Jukka Rautakorpi |
| captain | Kristian Kuusela |
| Season 2018/19 | 2nd place, bronze |
Tappara is a Finnish ice hockey club from Tampere that plays in the Liiga . Tappara plays his home games in the Tampereen jäähalli . The club was founded in 1932 under the name Tammerfors Bollklubb , or TBK for short , and has won the Finnish championship 17 times in its history .
history
Beginnings as TBK
The club, now known as Tappara, was founded in 1932 as Tammerfors Bollklubb (TBK) and consisted mainly of students from the Swedish school in Tampere. At that time, the club had departments for football , bandy and ice hockey. The first official ice hockey game was played in 1934.
In 1942 TBK was accepted into the top ice hockey division, the SM-sarja , and achieved their first victory against Tarmo Hämeenlinna in January 1943. In 1946, the team took third place in the championship and - as is usual in Finland - won the first bronze medal in the club's history. The championship was won by local rival Ilves , against whom TBK had lost 4:19 during the season.
First successes (1953–1964)
The first era of club success came in the 1950s, when TBK won the national championship three times in a row - 1953 to 1955 . In 1955, the team changed its original Swedish name to the Finnish word for battle ax , tappara, in order to attract Finnish-speaking players. In the following nine years, Tappara won three more championships (1959, 1961 and 1964), three runner-up championships (1958, 1960 and 1963) and three bronze medals (1956, 1957 and 1962). This winning streak ended in 1965 when Tappara relegated to the second division for one season, but realized the immediate promotion. In 1965 the Tampereen jäähalli was built for the 1965 Ice Hockey World Championship , which was used as the home ground of Tappara after the tournament was over. Tappara and their local rivals Ilves and Koo-Vee still play their home games there today .
The second wave of success (1975–1988)
It wasn't until the mid-1970s that Tappara found its way back to success, largely due to some legendary players such as goalkeeper Antti Leppänen and defender Pekka Marjamäki . The team won the bronze medal in 1973, followed by the runner-up in 1974 and the seventh championship in the club's history in 1975. Tappara repeated this success in 1977, 1979, 1982 and 1984 - with it the club had won eleven championships by this time. In 1980 Tappara successfully took part in the European Cup and finished second with two wins and one defeat in the final tournament.
Between 1986 and 1988 Tappara won the Finnish championship three times in a row, so the team of that era, coached by Rauno Korpi , is considered the strongest in the club's history. Under the leadership of players like Timo Susi and Erkki Lehtonen , young talents like Teppo Numminen and Janne Ojanen matured into top performers in this era.
In 1988 the Finnish national team won the first medal at the Winter Olympics , with some tappara players forming the trunk of the Finnish Olympic team. Tappara players Erkki Lehtonen and Janne Ojanen scored the goals for Finland in the decisive 2-1 win over the Soviet Union , which secured second place and the silver medal.
Development since 1990
In the 1990s, Tappara could not achieve any success worth mentioning, except for third place in the 1989/90 season. On the contrary - at the end of the 1991/92 season , the team, which had been spoiled for success up to then, had to fight to stay in the play-downs against Kärpät Oulu . In 1995 the tappara player Timo Jutila was named captain of the Finnish national team, which won the gold medal at the world championship of the same year .
In the early 2000s, Tappara returned to more successful times, reaching the runner-up in 2001 and 2002, respectively. In the 2002/03 season Tappara won the fifteenth Finnish championship title under the leadership of Jukka Rautakorpi . Another success followed in 2008 with third place in the SM-liiga, which was surpassed by participation in the finals at the end of the 2012/13 season . With the 2-1 win over IFK Helsinki on April 26, 2016, the 4th win in the 6th game of the final playoff series, Tappara was able to celebrate another championship title after twelve years. This success was repeated a year later.
successes
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SM-sarja :
- 7 × Finnish ice hockey champions: 1953, 1954, 1955, 1959, 1961 , 1964, 1975
- 4 × Finnish ice hockey runners-up: 1958, 1960, 1963, 1974
- 9 × bronze medals: 1946, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1956, 1957, 1962, 1973
- SM-liiga:
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European Cup :
- 1 × silver: 1980
