SHIPS’ ICE HOCKEY TOURNAMENT 6. -7.3. 2006

The tournament was arranged in Paimio, so players from Turku had less distance to travel than previous years. The turnout was indeed a good one, with over 80 hockey players over two days. The participants were the old regulars Amorella, Isabella, Gabi, Europa and Sere, with the addition of Eckerö Line’s Translandia.

Paimio’s new and still rough-edged OP Arena ice stadium provided a splendid setting for the tournament. The cafeteria worked on a self-service basis, with the occasional assistance of “senior kitman” Reka Hyökki. A few players also made use of the stadium’s gym facilities during their breaks. Blade sharpening, an important issue, was also arranged.

Seppo Mäkelä, who has been awarded the nobility title of Ice Hockey Lion number 136 by the Finnish Ice Hockey Museum , handled the penalties in the usual style. On Tuesday afternoon, while Seppo took a short break, Latvian Visvaldis Radelis jumped in the rink. Radelis, a.k.a. "Rade" is the director of the Liepaja Seamen’s Service and is planning to assemble a hockey team among the local seamen for next year’s MEPA tournament. Hopefully, there will also be a Swedish seamen’s team.

The games were played by veteran rules with a playtime of 30 minutes. Six games were played on Monday, after which the players enjoyed some food and a sauna at the Valtatie 1 Hotel. The snow-covered structure by the sauna facilities turned out to be an outdoor grill. Despite the freezing -20°C, the players did not hesitate to light a fire and grill a few sausages. The long-distance travellers spent the night at the Valtatie 1 Hotel.

A rough Tuesday

A whopping nine games were played on Tuesday, starting at ten a.m. The Translandia and Serenade teams were on the smaller side, and the team got plenty of playing time. Translandia was assigned four games on Tuesday. First mate Mika Lappi drove from Helsinki after docking, and was back in time to load the ship after the games, quite an achievement.

  Penalty shots were used instead of penalty time, which allowed the teams to play fully manned. Some decimated playing was nonetheless seen, however rare for a MEPA tournament, when Seppo blew a five-minute penalty for Silja Europa. This was the sole penalisation suffered by the tournament’s champion team to be.

  The game schedule was played through and the prizes distributed by four p.m. Aside from a few bruises and minor cuts, luckily no injuries occurred. The strength of the tournament’s champion, Silja Europa, lied in the team’s evenness. The other large teams would perhaps have benefited from giving the best players more playing time, but the main thing was that everyone got to play. Thanks to everyone!

GAMES:

FINAL RESULTS

BEST PLAYER:                    JOHAN WIKSTRÖM, ISABELLA
BEST FIGHTER:                  HARRY VÄLILÄ, SILJA EUROPA

FAIR-PLAY-PLAYERS:

SILJA EUROPA                      PETRI VALTONEN
SILJA SERENADE                 MARKO MOLANDER
GABRIELLA                           PASI TAURIAINEN
AMORELLA                           ILKKA HEINONEN
ISABELLA                              TOMI KIVEKÄS
TRANSLANDIA                     MIKA LAPPI

REFEREES                              SEPPO MÄKELÄ & VISVALDIS  RADELIS
KITMAN                                REIJO  ”REKA” HYÖKKI
STADIUM MASTER              JOUNI HÖRKKÖ

HELSINKI 2003

Five passenger vessels signed in for the tournament. The participated teams were : Finnjet, Silja Europa, Silja Serenade, Amorella and Isabella. So, this was a fight between two leading ferry operators. Two vessels came from Viking Line, and three vessels from Silja Line. Probably the seafarers thought this was a fight between Turku and Helsinki, where their ships are sailing.

All the teams had to play against each other. This made ten matches altogether. The leading referee was Mr Seppo Makela, a well-respected former league referee. Mr Makela is a big man, and works at the Port of Rauma, which makes him a good referee for a seafarers´ tournament like this. The other field was judged by Mr Elmeri Pankkonen, a young guy, who shows promise as a referee.

The tournament went on in a good atmosphere. The seafarers kept on playing just for fun, spurring on each other. However, the time was running, and we had to play all the matches before 3 o´clock p.m. Most of the seafarers had to go back to work before evening. That´s why we could not have any long breaks between periods or games. The guys got tired and bad-tempered.

The referee, Mr Makela, gave several penalties to each team. One match was 2x 15 minutes time running nonstop, and a penalty was normally 2 minutes. Makela gave 2+2 min once, and one guy got a sending off during the last game. Anyway, no severe injuries occurred. Some players had to take a break, one guy had to strip off his togs and move to audience because of a leg injury.

The organizer and the audience were surprised by the skills of the players. All the matches were even. Good players could be found everywhere, and each team had an excellent goalkeeper. The champion of the last year, Silja Serenade, used to change the goalie to a forward, if the game was for example three - three at the last minute. It was very easy for the opponent to score then.

Two ships, Isabella and Silja Europa, both sailing to Turku, never lost a match. Isabella scored seven points and won the championship, Silja Europa came second. The legendary gas turbine ship, Finnjet, was third, and Viking Line´s Amorella fourth. The sport orientated Silja Serenade gambled with the goalie, and made no points at all, but scored seven goals, anyway.

Each team was given a prize by Finnish Seamen´ s Service in the cafeteria, where we had a late lunch after the games. The organizers also picked six players for an All Stars Team. Most players seemed to be little bit tired after four matches, but they made it without resting. Everybody could see: these guys are in good physical condition.

But, this is not the only way for a seafarer to play ice hockey. Caribbean luxury liners have skating rinks, where artists play ice shows for passengers. We have heard, that Nordic seafarers use these skating rinks for playing ice hockey.

VIKING LINE´ S M/V ISABELLA IS THE CHAMPION OF FINLAND

ICE HOCKEY TOURNAMENT IN HELSINKI

FINAL STANDINGS

LIST OF THE MATCHES

Finnjet-Isabella 2-3, Amorella-S.Serenade 2-0, Isabella-Amorella 3-1, Finnjet-S.Europa 1-1

Isabella-S.Europa 3-3, Finnjet-Amorella 1-1, S.Serenade-S.Europa 3-4

Finnjet-S.Serenade 3-2, Isabella-S.Serenade 3-2, S.Europa-Amorella 3-2

Finnish Seamen´ s Service thanks all the players and assistants.

Pekka Karppanen

Field Officer / Sport coordinator