SaPKo Savonlinna

Savonlinnan Pallokerho (SaPKo) is an ice hockey team from Savonlinna, Finland, playing in the Mestis league. It plays its home matches in Talvisalon jäähalli.
The sports club Savonlinnan Pallokerho was founded in 1929. First it consisted football and bandy sections, but since the 1960s ice hockey has been the main sport.
In 1960s SaPKo played four seasons in the highest tier of Finnish ice hockey SM-sarja but was relegated to Suomi-sarja in 1971. In 1974 the new First Division was formed and SaPKo was one of the teams participating. SaPKo soon established itself as the team of I-divisioona expect few visits to Second Division. In 1968 SaPKo worked its way to the final of Finnish Cup, but lost the final to KooVee 10-2.
Later bigger success came in the 1994-95 when SaPKo had very good regular season with players like Team Canada captain Brian Tutt and was close to promotion to the SM-liiga. It played tight promotion playoffs against Ilves but failed to promote. After the success started a downtrend, which culminated to relegation to Suomi-sarja. At the end of the 2005-06, SaPKo finally gained promotion back to the second tier, Mestis.
==Honours==
===Mestis===
* (1): 2017
* (1): 2018
===Suomi-sarja===
* (1): 2003
* (1): 2006
===Finnish cup===
* (3): 1967, 1968, 2017
==Retired numbers==
* 2 Paavo Tirkkonen
* 3 Jyrki Turunen
* 5 Ahti Ruohoaho
* 10 Raimo Turkulainen
== Notable alumni ==
* Timo Ahmaoja
* Marko Ahosilta
* Antti Bruun 
* Aleksandr Fatkullin
* Arto Heiskanen
* Raimo Hirvonen
* Timo Iljina
* Vesa Karjalainen
* Toni Koivunen
* Tero Koponen
* Gennadi Kurdin 
* Jukka-Pekka Laamanen
* Joni Lindlöf
* Tuomo Litmanen
* Tuomas Lohtander 
* Steve MacDonald 
* Vladimír Machulda 
* Danny Malone
* Petri Matikainen
* Randy Maxwell 
* Len Nielsen 
* Simon Nielsen 
* Antti Nyrhinen
* Hannu Oksanen
* Jussi Pekkala
* Jussi Piuhola
* Joonas Rask
* Seppo Repo
* Iiro Tarkki
* Antti Tirkkonen
* Pekka Tirkkonen
* Viktor Tjumenev 
* Tommi Turunen
* Pasi Varhevaara
* Tuomas Vänttinen
==See also==
* SaPKo Savonlonna players
* SaPKo Savonlonna coaches
* SaPKo Savonlonna seasons
==External links==
* Official homepage
Category:Finnish ice hockey teams
Category:Established in 1929
Category:SaPKo Savonlinna
Category:Mestis team
Category:Suomi-sarja team