Pyry Nokian

Three straight seasons, 2023 to 2025, did not just win Pyry the Suomi-sarja — they wore the title down until it gave way to promotion, the club stepping up to Mestis after finishing top of the third tier three years running. Before that run they had circled the same door without finding a way through, beaten in the 2013 promotion playoffs after finishing runners-up that year, then settling for third place in 2017 and 2018.

The ice hockey side is the younger half of a club that traces back to 1905 as a general sports society; skates did not go on until 1952, when Nokia fielded its first match. Not everything since has gone smoothly — a stoppage in a match against Kiekkokopla in the 2015–2016 season cost the club a penalty.

Names have travelled further than the club itself. Roope Hintz and Juuso Välimäki both passed through on their way to the NHL, and for one season, 2016–2017, Nokia had Noora Räty between the posts. Toni Rautakorpi, once a Pyry player himself, now coaches the side that carried him.

Nokian jäähalli holds barely a thousand, which suits a club whose real measure has always been LeKi, Lempäälän Kisa, the neighbours who met them in the Suomi-sarja final in both 2023 and 2024.