Biography
Petri Matikainen (born 7 January 1967) is a Finnish former ice hockey player who became a coach after his playing career.
Matikainen was born in Savonlinna. Originally playing for SaPKo, he moved to play two seasons of junior hockey in Oshawa Generals. He was part of the team that won J. Ross Robertson Cup in 1987. In the same year, he also won IIHF World U20 Championship with Finnish team. He returned to Finland and played two years in Tappara, five years in Jokipojat and two years in KalPa. In 1996 he moved to play for Berlin Capitals. In the middle of the 1996/97 season he joined EC KAC from the Austrian league championship. With the team he became runner-up at the end of the season and took second place with the team in the Alpine League. In the 1998/99 season he was again runner-up with the EC KAC before ending his playing career at the age of 32.
In 2003, he started his coaching career with Lahti Pelicans U20 team, and became head coach of their senior team in the following year. The team was not competitive and they ended last of 13 teams that year. He then became assistant coach of Blues in 2005 and spent two years as an assistant before being promoted as head coach in 2007. He was awarded Kalevi Numminen trophy in 2008 and 2010 after Blues got silver medals.
In 2010, he was chosen as an assistant coach of Finnish national team. The season 2011–2012 Matikainen coached HIFK Helsinki. In summer 2012 he signed a tree year contract to Avangard Omsk (KHL). In 2014 he signed a one-year contract to HC Slovan Bratislava (KHL). [1] In the spring 2015 he signed a tree year contract to Lahti Pelicans.
Petri Matikainen moved to Austria in 2018 to coach EC KAC, with whom he won the Austrian league championship back-to-back times in the 2018/19 and 2020/21 seasons, while the 2019/20 season was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In June 2023, EHC Biel announces him as their new coach for the upcoming season.
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