Editing Ilves (section)

==History==
With sixteen championships, Ilves is the second most successful hockey team in the Finnish championship league, the [[Liiga]], after their local rival [[Tappara]]. The club was founded in the spring of 1931, and it played its first game against Tampereen Palloilijat the next winter. In the late 1930s, Ilves won three Finnish championship titles as the first Tampere-based hockey team.<ref>[https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2022/wm/news/33601/22_great_tampere_moments 22 great Tampere moments] – [[IIHF]]</ref>

After [[World War II]], Ilves started playing its home games at the then new Koulukatu ice rink. It had another championship spree in 1945–1947 when it stayed undefeated for over four years (albeit playing only 36 games during that period).{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

In 1954, Ilves was for the first and so far only time [[relegation|relegated]] to the second highest level of Finnish hockey but managed to return to the top tier only one year later.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

The current logo was designed by Rauno Broms in 1963. In 1965, Ilves moved, along with its local rivals [[Tappara]] and [[KOOVEE (ice hockey)|KooVee]], to the new [[Tampere Ice Stadium|Hakametsä]] arena, where they played until 2021.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

The last Finnish Cup competition in hockey was held in 1971. Ilves won the title and has therefore been the reigning champion since. In 1972, it also won another league championship; its 15th championship in total.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

During the late 1970s, Ilves went through lean times. Finally, when Koovee, which was in no better condition, was relegated at the end of the 1979–80 season, the two clubs decided to sign an agreement of cooperation. The best players of Koovee moved to Ilves, the most notable of them being [[Risto Jalo]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

In 1985, Ilves claimed its 16th and most recent championship. Along with Risto Jalo, the key players of that team were [[Raimo Helminen]], [[Mikko Mäkelä (ice hockey)|Mikko Mäkelä]], [[Ville Siren]], and [[Jukka Tammi]]. Repeating this success proved difficult, however, when in the following summer four players left the team to play in the [[NHL]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

In the late 1980s, Ilves had another brief stint of moderate success when coached by [[Sakari Pietilä]]. It finished first after the regular season in 1988 but was eliminated in the first round of playoffs. The next year it came away with a bronze medal, and finally in 1990 it reached the finals, only to lose to [[TPS (ice hockey)|TPS]].{{citation needed|date=May 2016}}

For most of the 1990s, the club struggled with financial problems and unclear issues concerning ownership. In sports performance, the low point was in the spring of 1995, when Ilves finished last in the SM-liiga and had to fight the lower league teams [[SaPKo]] and [[SaiPa]] for their place among the elite for the next year.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Ilves managed to avoid relegation and was promptly reborn as a viable championship candidate, reaching the semifinals in 1997 and the finals a year after that.{{citation needed|date=May 2016}}

The 2000s were a fairly mediocre period in Ilves history. After their bronze medal win in 2001, Ilves lost in the first round of the playoffs in six of the next seven seasons and missing the playoffs altogether in 2003. They managed to avoid relegation in 2010, 2012 and 2013.{{citation needed|date=May 2016}}