Janne Hietaniemi is a familiar coach to Jukka Jalose.
Head coach of the Italian ice hockey team Jukka Jalonen gets a familiar assistant to his coaching staff this week when the team plays its first matches of the season in an international tournament in Hungary. Ice hockey league club SaiPa announced in X on Monday that the team’s assistant coach Janne Hietaniemi spend a week as a video coach of the Italian national team.
Hietaniemi is a familiar coach to Jalose, as the 36-year-old from Helsinki served as Leijoni’s video coach for the past seven seasons. Jalonen finished his second period as head coach of the Lions last spring after six seasons and moved to head coach of Italy in the summer.
Italy, which is preparing for its home Olympics in a little over a year, will face Slovenia, Hungary and Poland in the Tamas Sarközy Memorial Tournament in Budapest.
Italy will play in the second level of the World Cup next spring and aims to advance to the main league.