Tampere is the home to two Liiga hockey teams - Tappara and Ilves.  Tappara has won 18 Finnish league titles, the first being 1959 and the last in 2022. On this year's squad there are two Canadians - Geoff Platt and Ben Thomas. Platt is from Toronto. Before playing in Europe he played in the National Hockey League with the Anaheim Ducks and the Columbus Blue Jackets. He then spend five years in the Kontinental Hockey League with Dinamo Minsk, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, and CSKA Moscow. While playing in Minsk, he accepted Belarusian citizenship. He first played for Belarus in international play in 2014. He played for Ilves, the Växjö Lakers, and now Tappara.  Ben Thomas was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2014. he played five seasons in the American Hockey League before finally getting 5 games with Tampa Bay. He moved to Sweden in 2021 to play for Leksands IF, Växjö Lakers, and now Tappara.  Ilves has won 16 Finnish league championships, the first being 1936 and the last in 1985. Th