Jalonen has a squad full of players who celebrated recent successes under him. Goalkeeper Jussi Olkinuora of Sweden’s Brynäs, goalie Mikko Lehtonen of Zurich, Atte Ohtamaa of Kärpätu Oulu and forward Sakari Manninen of Henderson of the AHL for both of the last world titles in 2019 and last year at home in Tampere, as well as winning historic gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics , Marko Anttila from Kärpät Oulu, Harri Pesonen from Langnau, Toni Rajala from Biel.
In both last year’s successes, runners Niklas Friman from Brynäs, Ville Pokka from Färjestad and forwards Hannes Björninen from Brynäs, Teemu Hartikainen from Geneva were not missing. Runners Petteri Lindbohm from Frölunda, who is also the 2019 world champion, Valtteri Kemiläinen from Tappara Tampere and striker Markus Granlund from Lugano presented themselves at the Olympics.
Forwards Juho Lammikko from Zurich and Jere Sallinen from Biel have both golds from the WC. At the World Cup title four years ago, there was defender Miika Koivisto from Växjö and last year defender Mikael Seppälä from Tappara and forward Armia.
In addition to the reinforcements from overseas, Jalonen included in the team newly from the champion Tappara Tampere next to Kemiläinen and Seppälä goalkeeper Christian Heljanek and forward Waltteri Merelä, from the squad of the Swedish champion Växjö goalkeeper Emil Larmi and full back Koivisto, the Swiss champion with Geneva Hartikainen and Rajala with Sallinen from the team of the defeated finalist White.
Missing is forward Iiro Pakarinen from IFK Helsinki, also an Olympic champion, who was injured last week in training in Sweden, and his start at the World Cup will be decided similarly to Laine’s after the Czech Games. The squad also includes striker Ahti Oksanen from Swedish Oskarshamn, who worked in Hradec Králové in the 2020/21 season.
The Finns will enter the tournament on Thursday from 18:20 against the Czech national team, two days later they will compete against Switzerland at noon and on Sunday at the same time in the Nordic derby against Sweden. In the Euro Hockey Tour table, after three tournaments, the Finns are third with a loss of one point to the second Czech Republic and six points behind the leader Sweden.
| Nominations of Finnish ice hockey players for the Czech Games in Brno (May 4-7): |
|---|
| Goalkeepers: |
| Christian Heljanko (Tappara Tampere), Emil Larmi (Växjö/Svéd.), Jussi Olkinuora (Brynäs/Svéd.), |
| defenders: |
| Valtteri Kemiläinen, Mikael Seppälä (oba Tappara Tampere), Nikolas Matinpalo (Ässät Pori), Atte Ohtamaa (Kärpät Oulu), Niklas Friman (Brynäs/Švéd.), Miika Koivisto (Växjö/Švéd.), Mikko Lehtonen (Curych/Švýc. ), Petteri Lindbohm (Frölunda/Swed.), Olli Määttä (Detroit/NHL), Ville Pokka (Färjestad/Swed.), Juuso Riikola (Oskarshamn/Swed.), |
| attackers: |
| Toni Rajala, Jere Sallinen (both Biel-Bienne/Švýc.), Marko Anttila (Kärpät Oulu), Waltteri Merelä (Tappara Tampere), Iiro Pakarinen (IFK Helsinki), Joel Armia (Montreal/NHL), Hannes Björninen (Brynäs/Švéd .), Markus Granlund (Lugano/Švýc.), Teemu Hartikainen (Ženeva/Švýc.), Kasperi Kapanen (St. Louis/NHL), Patrik Laine (Columbus/NHL), Juho Lammikko (Curych/Švýc.), Sakari Manninen (Henderson/AHL), Ahti Oksanen (Oskarshamn/Švéd.), Harri Pesonen (Langnau/Švýc.), Mikael Ruohomaa (Leksand/Švéd.), Antti Suomela (Lausanne/Švýc.). |
