Street Hockey, also known as ball hockey, dek hockey or road hockey, is a variation of ice hockey where the players play on the ground with sneakers or rollerblades instead of on ice with ice skates. This is why this sport is easy to play and everybody can participate, regardless of their skill level. This year 144 team were chasing the Finnish Street Hockey championship title.
Street Hockey is usually played on asphalt which is why helmet and ice hockey gloves are mandatory equipment. Although it’s also recommended to use protective cup and knee pads. In Finland the Game time is 2 X 10 min. and in this sport the gaming time doesn’t stop during the game breaks. Street Hockey is played with a small plastic ball.
Street Hockey Tour has been arranged in Finland already for ten years, and the popularity is increasing year after year. This summer Street Hockey Tour celebrated its eleventh year touring around in Finland. This also means that there are eleven happy teams with the Finnish championship title in Street Hockey. This year the tour started in the beginning of June, with the first qualifier arranged in Helsinki 7-8.6.2014. Altogether the tour was arranged in 7 different cities, and in total there were 14 eventful days during the Finnish Street Hockey championship tour. The tour was culminated with the Finals in Helsinki 1-2.8.2014, where the four best teams of each city, altogether 24 teams, competed against each other to win the Finnish championship. The title of The Finnish championship in Street Hockey year 2014 was won by Jaybirdz team from Tampere. The second team was American diner and the bronze was won by a team called Joukkue. You can check out pictures from the whole tour here.
The tour this year was arranged in following cities: Turku, Rauma, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Oulu and the finals in Helsinki. From these cities the following teams were able to struggle their way to the finals in Helsinki: Killeri, Joukkue, Vallox Rednecks, American Dinner, HC Puutuneet Jalat, Minnesota Viltti, Texas Pete, Myyrät, Punakone, DPHD, Turtles Hockey, Raimonlätty, Jaybirdz, Örh, HC Nahkanuoliaiset, Radio City, Vuorelan Veikot, HC Nahkatorvi, Pasilan Pyrkijä, HS127, Dynastia, Haamujengi, Hc Kings, and G.G.G.
Tour with 14 eventful days
In addition to the tour and the exciting games, the gaming area was filled with entertainment and events for the audience. Throughout the whole tour the audience had the possibility to test their own strength with the hockey shot radar. One of Finland’s most known hockey players: Jarkko “Rudi” Ruutu tested this hockey shot radar in Helsinki with the result speed of 153 km/hour. And of course the aim of many hockey fans was to beat Rudi in the hockey radar. The speed of the best shot during the whole Street Hockey Tour was over 190 km/hour. Another partner to Street Hockey Tour in Finland was the Finnish online casino Netticasino.com, which provided the audience entertainment in their tent with their roulette and blackjack gambling tables. Netticasino also had a raffle throughout the tour where one lucky winner from Oulu won a season ticket to Kärpät ice hockey team for season 2014-2015. Read the interview with the winner here.
Throughout the whole, almost two months lasting tour, many famous faces were seen and also many hockey players participated the tournament. In Jyväskylä the audience could enjoy games watching Stanley Cup winner Ville Nieminen playing in the Blockfest team. The northernmost city in the tour also provided the audience excitement with a “star game” with Finnish known hockey players such as Juhamatti Aaltonen, Julius Junttila and Joonas Donskoi.
Helsinki finals in August was popped with people and no wonder, since the “star game” at Saturday 2.8.2014 was played with hockey stars such as Esa Tikkanen, Jarkko Ruutu, Leo Komarov, Veli-Matti Savinainen and Juha Koivisto.
Be ready for the next year’s Street Hockey Tour, since for sure there are going to be even more teams participating, and it’s going to be bigger and of course better, so sta