Leading the competition

The Finnish Leijonat have had an amazing start into this year's Ice Hockey World Championships.

As the only team in the competition Finland has won all group games and starts into the quarter finals on Thursday against Denmark as the clear favorite.

You can watch all Finland games on MTV3. All other games are shown on pay TV. So just head to a bar close by and watch from there.

Enjoy the rest of the games and don't miss the finals on Sunday!

Hockey Champions League

After a long break this season the Champions Hockey League is back. Several rounds have already been played and Helsinki's IFK is doing quite well. They are now in the quarter finals where they have to play the Swedish team Frölunda Gothenburg.

Why not join it live in the stadium? The good thing is that tickets to the CHL games are relatively cheap. For just 17,50€ you get a seat anywhere.

The next game will be in one week on December 2 here in Helsinki. Check it out and cheer for HIFK to win.

KHL is here

You might have seen the poster already hanging all around the city. The KHL (Kontinental Hockey League) with teams from around Eastern Europe and Russia has a new member starting from this season: Jokerit.

The team, which is now also partly owned by the Finnish-Russian Rotenberg family, won't compete in the Finnish SM-Liiga anymore but will play international. The KHL is considered the second best league in the world after the NHL and is structured similarly. Starting from this upcoming season Jokerit will play in the Western Conference in the Bobrov Division against SKA St. Petersburg, Dinamo Riga, Slovan Bratislava, Atlant Moscow Oblast, Dinamo Minsk and Medveščak Zagreb.

Hartwall arena will continue to be their home stadium. But derbies with their local rival HIFK, also based in Helsinki, will become more rare.

So now you can follow two different ice hockey leagues here in Helsinki.

Hockey is back

The hockey season started again in Finland. The first few games have been played already in the SM Liiga.

Finns love hockey and in case you haven’t seen any Finnish league games so far it is really time. Unfortunately you can’t watch them on free-TV and the packages are quite expensive. But lots of bars show the games and watching with a crowd is anyway more fun.

The best option is of course to watch the matches live in the stadium. And here the capital area offers several options. See HIFK at Jäähalli, Jokerit at Hartwall Areena or the Espoo Blues at Barona Areena.

So many things to do today

No idea yet what you want to do today? Well this Saturday there are lots of options.

First of all today is Ravintolapäivä again. Most of you will already know it. Everyone can open a restaurant, café or snack bar for one day. Over 400 pop-up restaurants will be welcoming visitors today in the center.

Or follow the Kalamaraton. Fishermen from all over Finland will come to Helsinki today to show their fishing skills. From noon till midnight they have 12 hours time to catch as much as possible in the Helsinki waters. If you are interested in fishing you might still be able to learn something from the professionals today.

And in the evening don’t forget to watch the semifinal of the ice hockey championships. It’s a classic: Finland vs. Sweden. That’s the most emotional game you can imagine in Finland. So if you want to have the real experience watch it in one of Helsinki’s sports bars and root for the blue and white lions. The game starts at 16:00 and will also be shown on MTV3.

Another event that involves Finland and Sweden will be the final of the Eurovision Song Contest taking place in Malmö, Sweden today. And Finland’s candidate Krista Siegfrids is considered to have good chances for a high ranking. The event will be broadcasted live on YLE 1 and YLE HD starting from 22:00.

Enjoy the weekend!

Don't miss a single hockey game!

Sadly most hockey games are not shown on free TV. Fortunately with your smart phone you can always stay up-to-date with what happens at the World Championships.

Therefore you just need to download the official IIHF World Championships 2013 smart phone app. It provides you with schedules and scores, background information on teams and players and with everything else that happens at the World Championships. You can also make your own predictions for the games and guess which teams wins.

The app is free. It’s available for WindowsPhone, Android, Blackberry and iPhone.

Let's watch the Hockey Championships!

The Ice Hockey World Championships 2013 start today. As last year the games are partly played in Helsinki and partly in Stockholm with the difference that the last games (starting from semifinal) will be in Sweden this time.

And as last year if you want to see all the games you will have to either get a subscription to MTV3 total (24,95€), buy the games as a whole package (24,95€) or singularly (7€) online at Katsomo or find a nice sports bar that shows the championships.

All Finland games will be shown on MTV3 for free though:

03.05.    20:00     Finland – Germany

04.05.    20:00     Finland – Slovakia

06.05.    20:00     Finland – France

08.05.    20:00     USA – Finland

10.05.    20:00     Russia – Finland

11.05.    16:00     Finland – Austria

14.05.    20:00     Latvia – Finland               

16.05.    18:15     Quarterfinal 3

18.05.    15:45     Semifinal 1

              19:45     Semifinal 2

19.05.    16:45     Bronze Medal Game

              21:15     Final      

Let’s watch hockey!

The Finns national sport is hockey. And their league SM liga is actually one of the best in the world (it was ranked second best in Europe behind Russia). You should definitely watch a game live.

Helsinki has two first league hockey clubs: HIFK, whos history dates back to 1897 and who plays at Helsingin Jäähalli and Jokerit, which was founded in 1967 that plays at Hartwall Areena. There is a huge rivalry between those two. At some point you probably won’t get around picking a side. The city is basically divided into supporters of one or the other club. The capital region also hosts a third SM liga club: the Espoo Blues (home: Barona Areena).

You buy tickets to the games for quite reasonable prices starting from 14€ and up to 40€ per game. Tickets for games of HIFK and the Blues can be bought online from lippupalvelu.fi, tickets to Jokerit games are sold from their own website. 

One of the most exiting games is the derby between the two Helsinki teams. But to get tickets for them you will have to book early. They are sold out pretty fast and one of the most watched games of the season.

The live experience at Elmo

The group phase of the Ice Hockey World Championships is over. Today the quarterfinals start. Most of your probably didn’t buy a ticket for the stadium. But to still get the live experience in a big group with fans around you yelling for their team and celebrating their victories together you sports bar are a good alternative. What about watching the final games at Elmo Bar next to Kamppi? Next to lots of screens showing the games – and during this time you can be sure that they will just show the ice hockey games on every screen – you have a great atmosphere in the medium sized but during the games quite small appearing place. Apart from the mandatory beer they offer quite nice snacks. The prices are average for the center of Helsinki.

If you want to watch one of the Finnish games there you should be early. Elmo gets crowded quite fast on those days.

Support for Suomi!

The Ice Hockey World Championships are still going on till Sunday. Let’s hope the Finnish team makes it as far as last year (which would mean winning the Championships). To show your support for the team you can of course get fan products now everywhere in Helsinki. For the special occasion they also put up a fan shop in front of Kammpi Shopping center. Here you get everything you need to show you are supporting the Finnish lions. Take a look but carefully consider if you really want to buy something there. The prices are really high. You barely get anything for less than 20 Euros. Rather take it to get an idea about what you want to have and try to find those things in the nearby warehouses for a few Euros less.

The dilemma with the World Cup

 

Imagine it’s ice hockey world cup and nobody is watching. That’s pretty much the case at the moment with the championships taking place in Helsinki and Stockholm at the moment. Since the broadcasting rights were too expensive the public TV station YLE doesn’t show any of the games. The private broadcasting company around MTV3 got the rights this time but will only show games of the Finnish national team on free TV (MTV3 and AVA). For everything else you have to buy a pricy subscription for Channel+ or via the online platform Katsomo.

And if you don’t plan on paying ridiculous amounts of money watching a game live in the stadium is also out of question. Prices for games in the first round start from 90 Euros. For a Finland game you have to calculate with at least 150 Euros per ticket. No wonder that the stadiums in Stockholm and Helsinki half full in best case.

The only chance to see the games is going to one of the sports bars.

It’s really a pity how the greed of the organizers made the world cup in one of the most ice hockey crazy countries in the world such a disaster.

For those who want to get at least some world cup feeling into their homes here a list of the games shown in free TV:

05/06    16:00     Finland – Slovakia           MTV3

05/08    19:55     Finland – Switzerland      AVA

05/10    19:55     France – Finland             AVA

05/11    19:55     Finland – Canada             AVA

05/13    16:00     Finland – USA                MTV3

05/14    19:55     Kazakhstan – Finland      AVA

05/17    18:10     Quarterfinal 3                 AVA

05/19    14:15     Semifinal 1                     MTV3

            18:10     Semifinal 2                     AVA

05/20    15:40     third-place game             AVA

            20:15     Final                             AVA