The Finnish Winter Classic

The Finnish SM-liiga hopped on the bandwagon with the outdoor hockey games. In February two Helsinki-based teams, Jokerit and HIFK, are going to play a league game at the Helsinki Olympic stadium.

I think the promotional poster is quite nice

They even have the seating chart in the same style.

The game was played yesterday with HIFK winning 4-3. Here are a couple of pictures...



And here is video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxhBGAXB5No

It seemed like a good game. Go NHL for something pretty much every hockey league could do. The KHL did it, I know. But its neat seeing rowdie fans, like a soccer game, at an outdoor hockey game in Finland.