The finals of the Ice Hockey Women’s League will start on Saturday in Espoo, when Kiekko-Espoo and HIFK will meet each other in the final series, as in recent years.
Last year, the team from Helsinki won the championship directly with 3–0 victories. The final series can be expected to be more even this year, as the wins in the regular season were 2–2. The last meeting in February ended with the Espoo team winning 5–1.
Last spring, HIFK was able to celebrate the championship in the Helsinki Ice Hall in front of 1,300 spectators, but this year the teams may not be able to play for large audiences at all. Kiekko-Espoo plays all its home matches in Espoo Metro Areena’s training hall, i.e. Tapiola 2, while HIFK’s home arena is Pirkkola Ice Hall, which can accommodate around 550 spectators.
In previous years, the teams have emphasized that they specifically want to play the finals in their smaller rinks as well.
– I felt that if we were to move to the arena to play the finals, it would be a foreign field for us, Kiekko-Espoo’s champion defender Tea Villilä stated in connection with the spring 2022 final series.
Mestizo goes ahead
If the final series stretches to a fourth match, the fourth match will be played either at the Pirkkola ice rink or at the Helsinki ice rink, which is the home rink of HIFK’s men’s representative team.
– Regarding the Helsinki ice rink, the situation is that the use of the ice is in great demand, because Jokerit plays there in Mestis and HIFK in the League, where the final games of the season are also in full swing, the head of the Women’s League Henni Laaksonen commented to Urheilu.
– Now we have to wait and see how the Jokerit–Hermes series goes. If that streak doesn’t continue, the hall will be freed up for us to use, which of course we really hope for.
Laaksonen started in his position in August. The goal of the new manager was to develop the series towards an international top league and to increase the visibility of the series by, for example, using social media.
According to Laaksonen, the beginning has been good. Work has been done behind the scenes to develop the brand.
– It is clear that it is difficult to make any big changes in the middle of the season. At this point, when Finnish women’s major league hockey is being developed quite strongly towards the top league, it is also necessary to be able to make sustainable solutions on such a basis that they will carry. That’s why I would say that quick vacuums are not terribly sustainable solutions, Laaksonen begins.
– During the current season, we have been able to grow social media, we have been able to excellently combine great visibility and activities with the (men’s) League. We have also brought partners along for the trip. They have been exactly the goals we have been striving for.
The Women’s League announced that they signed in January the first partnership in its history, when it announced a partnership with a soft drink company popular among fitness enthusiasts. On the other hand, it has been published on the website of the Men’s SM League also news from the Women’s League.
On the other hand, there has also been criticism. For example, played at the beginning of February Koulukatu’s Winter Classic was worth noting modest, when only a little over 200 spectators found their way to the stands in a city the size of Tampere.
Two years from now in bigger halls?
The increased visibility has not yet been reflected in audience numbers. In Hämeenlinna, 140 pairs of eyes watched HIFK’s fourth semi-final against HPK, which decided the place in the final. Kiekko-Espoo decided the place in the final in front of 206 spectators in Espoo, when it defeated KalPa 2–1 and advanced to the final with straight 3–0 victories.
With the commercial development, the director of the series believes that in the future we will also see larger audiences in Finland.
– I would imagine that in a year or two, the fact that we play in bigger arenas for bigger audiences will be commonplace.
In Finland, a model for development has been sought from Sweden, where the country’s main series SDHL has also succeeded in attracting the public.
This year too, Luleå secured its place in the final in front of almost 1,900 spectators when it defeated Frölunda 6–1 and took the semi-final series directly 3–0.
In Gävle, in the second decisive semi-final, the crowd was a bit more moderate, as MoDo claimed a place in the finals from Brynäs with a decisive 2–0 victory in front of 976 spectators. MoDo and Luleå, who meet in the final series, play in the same arena as the club’s men’s representative teams.
On the Swedish side, HV-71 secured their league place in the qualifiers in front of 420 spectators. Skellefteå defeated AIK in the qualifiers and returned to the women’s premier league after a 16-year break. Supporters jumped from the bus onto the red carpet against players with torches.
– We look up to what SDHL is doing. We have already cooperated this season on where we are going together to develop European major league hockey on the women’s side. It is clear that Sweden is ahead and that is only a good thing.
– We also really look at what is happening in North America in the PWHL and together we try to develop the sports environment of women’s hockey towards a better future. Our duty is to leave the sport in a better place for future players, and I don’t think that any kind of confrontation is the way to do it.
No league qualifiers
in Finland There will be no qualifiers in the Women’s League this yearbecause none of the three teams that registered as candidates for promotion (Alavuden Peli-Veikot, Panelia Raikas and Lappeenrantan SaiPa) did not finish in the top three.
Mesti’s victory was taken by HIFK Academy before Kiekko-Espoo Academy. The KalPa academy team was third.
RoKi, which finished ninth in the series, thus retained its place in the series – despite the fact that it won only two of the 32 regular season matches it played. The goal difference for the people of Rovaniemi was -154.
For example, the finalist teams HIFK and Kiekko-Espoo defeated the Rovaniemi team 12–0 and 13–2.
– This year, the academy teams were in the top three of Mestis. Of course, I would hope, even from a competitive point of view, that life happens there too, as it surely will. I would believe that the development of women’s hockey will be awakened in other places as well, in order to have healthy competition with newcomers as well, commented Laaksonen.
After last season, Lukko suddenly gave up his league place and no replacement was found for the people from Rauma, so the league season started with nine teams. This is probably how it will be played next season as well.
According to Laaksonen, the series is also intended to be developed from a sporting perspective.
– We also have written into the Jääkieksoliito’s strategy that the development of women’s ice hockey does not only mean that we can increase the financial framework.
– Of course, our sport has to develop at the same time. Of course, that means that in some time frame we will be able to create some kind of license model or action plan on what is the level at which you can play in the league. We’re not quite done with it yet.