Estonia changes coach for WC

09 Apr 2018Davide Tuniz»

Canadian Spiros Anastasiadis was replaced by an old acquaintance

With about 15 days before the beginning of World Championship Division Ib in Kaunas, Estonian Federation announced the dismissal of Canadian coach Spiros Anastasiadis and and the appointment of former coach, Jussi Tupamäki. Anastasiadis, who coached South Korea U18 and the University of Lethbridge in the career, had arrived in Estonia at the beginning of the season, leading the national team at Baltic Cup, the U20 team, finished fourth at the WJC Division IIA, and the U18 team, escaping from relegation at the WJC18 Division IIA played at home.

" Spiros is a great coach with a great future. Since he comes from an hockey power as Canada, Estonia is a small hockey country, our base levels and opportunities are very different. He was only temporarily in Estonia and spent little time here, so it was not possible for him to adapt to the conditions here. On behalf of the Estonian hockey community, thank you for the work carried out by Spiros, and I wish him many successes in the future" said the Chairman of the Estonian ice hockey Federation Rauno Parras

Once again Estonian Federation chose to bet the chances of staying in I Division on 40 years old Finnish Jussi Tupamäki, who led the national team in the last three Championship, always escaping from relegation, despite before the tournament Estonia was always the favorite to goes down. Tupamaki had a not too positive experience this season on EHC Bregenzerwald bench in Alps Hockey League