Alpo Suhonen

Alpo Suhonen (born 17 June 1948 in Valkeakoski, Finland) is a Finnish ice hockey coach. He is serving as sport director of the Austrian ice hockey federation and as head coach of the Austrian men's national team.

He and Ivan Hlinka of the Pittsburgh Penguins were the first European-born head coaches in 52 years.

Suhonen worked for the Finnish ice hockey federation in the late 1970s until 1986. He coached the junior national teams and took charge of the men's national team in 1982. He was head coach of Team Finland at the 1984 Olympic Games and at four World Championships.

After coaching Zürcher SC of Switzerland for two years (1986 - 1988) and a short stint at the helm of Finnish Liiga side HPK, he served as head coach of AHL’s Moncton Hawks in 1989 and then joined the coaching staff of the Winnipeg Jets, working as an assistant.

In 1993-94, Suhonen coached Jokerit to the Finnish championship and then embarked on a two-year stint with EHC Kloten. He guided the team to back-to-back Swiss championships in 1995 and 1996.

In March 1997, he was named head coach of IHL's Chicago Wolves on an interim basis, but did not return for the following season.

Suhonen was appointed head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks in May 2000 and was the first European born head coach in the National Hockey League since Johnny Gottselig. He would last less than a year as head coach of the Hawks, as he resigned next spring because of heart problems. There was frequent criticism to Suhonen's coaching citing lack of discipline and a country club atmosphere among the players.

Suhonen returned to Finland and served as head coach of Liiga outfit HIFK from January 2002 until the end of the 2002-03 campaign. In November 2004, he took over head coaching duties at SC Bern of the Swiss National League A (NLA). He coached the team to a NLA semifinal appearance in the 2004-05 season and to the quarterfinals the following season. He was released afterwards.

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