The signpost in front of the door invites you to dream. New York, Vancouver, Stockholm, Prague. The message is clear: if you buy your equipment here at Hockey Heaven, one of Finland's largest ice hockey stores, you can make it anywhere. In all the places of longing that this sport has to offer.

And if you enter the building in an industrial park on the outskirts of the city, you will not only see hundreds of sticks and skates and helmets and pucks, but also the jerseys of those who made it: Patrik Laine, Aleksander Barkov, Roope Hintz – today all acclaimed millionaire stars in the North American elite league NHL. And above all: everyone from Tampere who started ice hockey here in Finland's third largest city.

"Our Ice Hockey Capital"

"Tampere is number one, a real ice hockey city with two big teams and a new arena," says Jere Lehtinen, one of the legends of the Finnish national sport. World Champion, Stanley Cup Winner, European Cup Winner, Finnish Champion. Now at the World Cup, the 49-year-old is manager of the national team.

Even though he himself comes from Espoo not far from Helsinki, he knows how important Tampere is: "Our ice hockey capital." What the city proudly carries in front of it. On a department store in the center hangs a meter-high poster with three cheering fans and the lettering "Home of Hockey".

That's what you immediately believe when you go on an exploration tour around Tampere. The Finnish Ice Hockey Museum is here, in the city and its suburbs there are almost a dozen ice rinks in which there is constant operation. From morning to evening, children and young people whiz across the ice, which in some halls is not even defrosted in summer. "In winter, there are open-air ice rinks on every corner," says Mikael Seppälä, who plays for local top club Tappara. Conditions that they can only dream of in Germany.

Now during the World Cup, it's all even bigger: the shop windows are decorated, fans can be seen everywhere, there are screens in numerous places, the games are playing in every pub, lanterns and traffic lights are covered with the stickers of the local clubs. Of these, there are three big ones, in addition to Tappara and Ilves in the first league and the training club Koovee in the second – although the industrial city has just 250,000 inhabitants.

"All hell broke loose in the city"

"But everyone has their fans, ice hockey is part of the culture of the people here," says Jere Lehtinen. Especially since these are not just any clubs. Last season, Tappara and Ilves were in first and second place after the main round. Tappara won the Champions League in between. "All hell broke loose in the city," says national defender Seppälä, "but we players couldn't join in the celebrations, we still had to play the league's play-offs." Tappara then won it and became Finnish champions for the second time in a row.

Now, for the second time in a row, the World Cup will also take place here. Actually, the tournament was supposed to take place in St. Petersburg this year, but after the war of aggression on Ukraine, the Russians were deprived of the World Cup, Tampere stepped in with its arena, which opened in 2021. You have the experience, said the Finnish association president Harri Nummela. And people are so crazy about ice hockey that they would fill the hall for two years in a row.

That doesn't always work this year. Only during the games of the hosts is the arena full. And what the fans have been offered so far, they like less. At the start there was a 1:4 against the United States for the current world champion and Olympic champion, then a laborious 4:3 against Germany, then again a defeat against the eternal rival Sweden.

And the 5-3 win on Wednesday against outsiders France also convinced the few. "Not the easiest evening for us," admitted captain Marko Anttila. This is not the only reason why many fans believe that it will be difficult with the fourth major title since 2019. The team does not seem as snappy as in previous years. On the other hand, the group stage is all about getting to the quarter-finals anyway. Then anything is possible, especially in Finland's ice hockey capital.