An Olympic winning coach was behind the bench in the UK last week as Great Britain and Italy played a two-game series in build up to their respective World Championship campaigns in Switzerland later this month.
After GB won 4-1 in Nottingham on Saturday night, I was able to speak to Italy’s head coach Jukka Jalonen.
The Finn, now 63, was a coach in Newcastle for two seasons from 1999 to 2001 leading the Riverkings to a playoff final and the Jesters to another Cup final. (The thing about team names in Newcastle is another topic for another time!)
After leaving Newcastle, it’s fair to say Jalonen has done kind of OK. To fans of Newcastle the fact that Jalonen was picked up by Finland national team was no surprise. A World Championhip gold and Olympic bronze soon followed.
After a spell in the KHL with SKA St Petersburg, the Finnish federation turned to Jalonen for their U20 team for World Juniors in 2016 on home ice in Helsinki. Finland duly saw off Russia in overtime to win the World Juniors – this made Jalonen the second coach alongside Mike Babcock to win IIHF Worlds and World Juniors.
A second spell as Finland national team coach saw a further two World Championships (2019, 2022) as well as silver medal in 2021.
It was a pleasure to speak with Jalonen, albeit briefly, and despite it being over 25 years since Newcastle both his and my own memories of Riverkings playoff against Sheffield are still vivid. Hearing his distinctive voice – unchanged since his time on Tyneside – was just brilliant for this Newcastle fan.
Jalonen and Italy face Great Britain again this weekend with games in Varese on Sunday and Tuesday before both sides head to Switzerland for the IIHF World Championship.
Italy are in Group B in Fribourg alongside Canada, Sweden, Czechia, Denmark, Slovakia, Norway and Slovenia.
Great Britain will face Austria, USA, Hungary, Switzerland, Finland, Latvia and Germany in the group stages at the 12,000-seater Swiss Life Arena in Zurich.
As the respective teams won’t meet until the second round of the Worlds (!), I’d like to wish Jukka and Italy well in the tournament and grateful to him for his time post-game in Nottingham.
march74 sports media 