Karjala Cup moves to Turku

09 Aug 2012 | Lukas Peroutka

Same tournament, new venue. New season of Euro Hockey Tour starts at the beginning of November with Karjala Cup in Finland, this year with an important change. Turku replaces Helsinki as the host city.

The tournament schedule has also been altered with the first games now planned for Wednesday, one day earlier than usual, and last day scheduled for Saturday.

Finnish representatives say the move to Turku has rational reasons. "It is important for our business interest and we also want the Finnish national team to play outside Helsinki," says Kalervo Kummola, head of Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Turku is not far from the capital and it has an international airport, has a modern arena and can provide good accomodation.

Another reason for the change was the interest of Turku city hall. "Ice hockey is our traditional sport, we want to host major international events," says Turku mayor Aleksi Randell. "Karjala Cup will help us with investment into various areas, development of our infrastructure and overall development of ice hockey in Finland."

Slight change to the schedule means this year´s tournament will kick off on Wednesday, with the game Czech Republic - Sweden being played in one of Czech arenas. Second game day follows on Friday and final clashes are scheduled on Saturday.

Other Euro Hockey Tour events remain in the same format as last year. Channel One Cup in Russia is planned for December 13, 2012 - Decemeber 16, 2012. Oddset Hockey Games in Sweden will take place from February 7, 2013 to February 10, 2013 and Czech Republic hosts KAJOTbet Hockey Games from April 25, 2013 to April 28, 2013.