lit a candle 3h agoWatched the 76 Canada Cup with my dad in our basement in Edmonton, a grainy broadcast, and he pointed out the Finnish winger who kept skating like the ice belonged to him. Never knew the name again until today. 73 years old, one club his whole career, Ässät. That kind of loyalty doesn't exist anymore.
Their story
Tapio Koskinen was a Finnish ice hockey forward who spent his entire top flight career, from 1968 to 1983, with Ässät of Pori. Nicknamed Tatsa, he won two Finnish championships with the club, played for Finland at the 1976 Winter Olympics and the 1976 Canada Cup, and was inducted into…
Tapio Koskinen was a Finnish ice hockey forward who spent his entire top flight career, from 1968 to 1983, with Ässät of Pori. Nicknamed Tatsa, he won two Finnish championships with the club, played for Finland at the 1976 Winter Olympics and the 1976 Canada Cup, and was inducted into the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame as Jääkiekkoleijona number 110 in 1998. Ässät announced on 10 November 2026 that he had died, aged 73.
Koskinen was born in Pori on 22 January 1953. A product of the local game, he broke into the Ässät first team at just 15, playing nine matches in the 1968 to 1969 SM-sarja season, and quickly became a regular scorer on the wing.
He never played for another club. Over 15 seasons he appeared in 475 regular season games for Ässät, scoring 185 goals and 173 assists for 358 points, and added 29 points in 38 playoff games. He still ranks among the club's highest scorers in its history. Ässät won the Finnish championship in 1971 and again in 1978, and he also collected two silver medals and a bronze. His most productive season was 1975 to 1976, the first year of the SM-liiga, when he scored 27 goals and 45 points.
Koskinen played 85 internationals for Finland, scoring 18 goals and 20 assists. In 1976 he played at the Innsbruck Winter Olympics, at the World Championship, where he scored seven goals in ten games, and at the first Canada Cup. He played at two World Championships in all and was a reserve for the 1980 Olympic team at Lake Placid.
His former teammate and friend Veli-Pekka Ketola said Koskinen had received too little attention for what he did on the ice. "He was among the brightest elite in the country and one of the most luminous players in the history of Pori hockey," Ketola said, remembering an excellent skater who had every tool a good player needs, and above all a team player who always put others first.
Ässät described his contribution to hockey in Pori as significant and announced a moment of silence in his memory before its home game against the Pelicans on 18 November 2026.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0, English and Finnish); Iltalehti; Porin Ässät; Olympedia. Wikipedia ↗
Photos
1Tapio Koskinen
by People Forever
Pori never forgot him either.