History of Porin Ässät (men's ice hockey)

Ässät's history in ice hockey can be traced back to the 1950s, when Porin Kärpät played their first official match in the Maakuntasarja.

When an agreement was finally reached, Rosenlew took over a large portion of Karhut's debts and promised to support the new team financially in the early years.

[6] Thanks to inheriting the RU-38 championship, Ässät also played in the 1968 European Cup, where it won its first two rounds before being beaten by SC Dynamo Berlin in the quarter-finals.

The new club did not receive unreserved support from the people of Pori, as the number of spectators decreased by 10,000 from the last season of Karhut.

For the following season, 1969–70, Ässät suffered two heavy losses when Veli-Pekka Ketola and Alpo Suhonen left for Jokerit for a year.

In the final series, everything fell into place, Ässät lost only one of their ten matches and overtook the Helsinki clubs ahead.

[12] The 1977–78 season again raised hopes of success when Pekka Rautakallio and Veli-Pekka Ketola returned to Ässät from North America.

In addition, promising young people played in the club, such as Arto Javanainen, Kari Makkonen, Tapio Levo and Harry Nikander.

The most important player on the team was the captain, center Veli-Pekka Ketola, who had returned from the North American WHA League.

For the 1983–84 season, the team received well-known returnees when Tapio Levo returned from the NHL and Risto Tuomi and Harry Nikander from Sweden.

The team was also strengthened by its own juniors, from whom more top players of the future were emerging; In addition to Javanainen and Levo, Kari Takko and Christian Ruuttu, among others.

In the decisive match, the club's veterans Levo, Makkonen and Nikander and a few others gave their all in front of their team, but the Yankee reinforcements acquired unnecessary coolers, and the spirit of the game was not entirely clear to everyone else from outside Pori.

The aces were superior in the regular season, breaking numerous Division I records and progressing effortlessly to victory and league qualifiers in the series.

It defeated the reigning champion TPS in the next match and eventually battled all the way for sixth place and the final playoffs, but was still two points behind.

[21] The meager loss of the playoff spot lowered the morale of the team, and the target for the following season, 1991-92, was already set higher.

The team also had good young players, such as Jokke Heinänen, Rauli Raitanen, Janne Virtanen, Olli Kaski and Jari Levonen.

Promising young people were acquired from Division I when Petri Varis came from KooKoo and Jouni Vento from FoPS.

Ässät also got a high class player when goalie Kari Takko returned from the NHL to his home club.

Ässät managed to level the wins to 2–2, but Tappara won the last match 1–4 and, to the disappointment of the Pori crowd, advanced to the semi-finals.

[23] Ässät suffered significant losses just before the 1994–95 season, when Olli Kaski left for Sweden, Vjačeslavs Fanduļs went to TPS and Arto Javanainen moved to Denmark to end his successful career.

However, the situation changed in February 1996, when the match against JyP HT in Pori was the most serious accident in the history of the SM-liiga, when Ässät's Otevřel was seriously injured.

[27] After the 1997–98 season, Ässät's playing success no longer carried the team into the playoffs, and the following years were quite a toddler at every level of the organization.

[28][29] With the club's toddler, the fanatical audience in Pori had time to level off due to the team's weak performances, until the hockey boom was revived in the 2005–06 season with the success of Ässät.

Winged by surprising success, the Pori hockey boom helped the club rise from years of financial distress.

[40] The team played variedly, being well involved in the competition for a playoff spot until the November World Championships break.

[47] During the World Championship break in November, Ässät strengthened their team with high-class returnees when Jarno Kärki, who moved to Tappara at the end of the previous season, and Sakari Salminen, who had played abroad for many years, returned.

On 4 March 2023, Ässät secured a playoff spot with a 2–1 win against Lukko in the last Satakunta derby of the regular season.

Ässät finished 8th in the regular season with 91 points and faces HC TPS in the first round of the playoffs in a best-of-three series.

Ässät signed French forward and the Jean-Pierre Graff Trophy winner Dylan Fabre to a two-year contract.

On 26 September, Ässät announced that Jonathan Davidsson has a long injury, and that they have signed Juuso Ikonen to a contract for the rest of the season.