Antti Pennanen will travel to Canada after the opening match, and Jussi Tapola will take over.
The composition of the men’s hockey A national team for the Swedish tournament of the EHT season, February 6-9. was announced in February on Monday in Helsinki.
The special feature of the tournament is that when Finland has played its opening match against Switzerland in Langnau, the team’s head coach changes. Antti Pennenen traveling to the four-nation NHL tournament in Montreal, Canada, and for his day job coaching the top Swiss club SC Bern Jussi Kill it drags the tournament to the end as Finland’s head coach assistant coach Ari-Pekka Selini with. Finland will face the Czech Republic in Stockholm on February 8, and Sweden the next day in the renovated Avicii Arena, also known as the Globen.
The four-nation tournament in Boston and Montreal with only NHL players starts on February 13. Finland will play its first match on February 14. Antti Pennanen’s assistant coaches in the tournament are the head coach of the league team HPK Mikko Manner and assistant coach of the Florida Panthers Tuomo Ruutu.
GM for the Swedish EHT tournament or Beijer Hockey Games Jere Lehtinen and Antti Pennanen chose a lot of interesting names. Keeper Christian Heljanko recently moved from the Swedish SHL with great fanfare to the top team of the German DEL league, ERC Ingolstadt. Sport’s power defender Atro Leppänen was an obvious choice. Played an excellent season in the lock Niclas Almari was rewarded for his development with his first call-up to the A national team, as was the Ilves forward Matias Mantykivi.
A total of six players were selected from the Finnish premier league, the SM league, 12 from the Swedish SHL, five from the Swiss NLA and two from the German DEL.
Finland’s lineup at the Swedish EHT tournament:
Goalkeepers
Heljanko Christian, ERC Ingolstadt
Lehtinen Lassi, MoDo Hockey
Defenders
Almari Niclas, Lock
Laaksonen Oskari, Luleå HF
Leppänen Atro, Sport
Pulli Valtteri, HC Lugano
Saarijärvi Vili, SCL Tigers
Sund Tony, HIFK
Viitasalo Nuutti, Lock
Vittasmäki Veli-Matti, Kölner Haie
Winberg Tobias, MoDo Hockey
Attackers
Björninen Hannes, Örebro HK
Borgström Henrik, HV71
Erholtz Eemil, Aces
Kapanen Oliver, Timrå IK
Kossila Kalle, Örebro HK
Leino Robert, Örebro HK
Levtchi Anton, Luleå HF
Luoto Joona, HV71
Mäenalanen Saku, SCL Tigers
Pine stone Matias, Ilves
Nurmi Markus, Luleå HF
Niko Ojamäki, EHC Kloten
Oksanen Ahti, Lausanne HC
Repo Sebastian, Lock
Ruohomaa Mikael, Frölunda HC