Vaasan Sport

Sebastian Stålberg came home to wear the captain's letter in Vaasa after a career that ran through Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. The team he leads traces to 1939, when it existed only as a section of a wider sports society called IF Sport; ice hockey did not get its own department until 1962, and independence as Vaasan Sport did not come until 1979.

The club was in the room when the SM-liiga was founded in 1975, and its name is attached to the league's very first goal, scored by Raimo Brax. It lasted one season before relegation, and the slide did not stop there — by 1991 Vaasan Sport had dropped as far as the second division. Getting back up took until 1997, settled by an overtime goal from Kari Teräväinen against Kiekko-67.

What followed was a strange kind of dominance. Vaasan Sport won the Mestis three times, in 2009, 2011 and 2012, and each time lost the promotion series that was supposed to follow the title — to Ässät, to Pelicans, to Ilves. The Liiga finally came in 2014, and not through a play-off but through an administrative decision, after Jokerit left the league for the KHL and a place opened up.

Home games are played at Vaasa Arena, on Käsitie, which also gave its name to the derby against Ässät — the Käsitien derby, sharpened by the memory of those blocked promotions. Rasmus Reijola has spent years in the Vaasan Sport net, and Joni Ortio has represented Finland after starting there.