Karjala Tournament

Karjala Tournament Karjala-turnaus
Peter Forsberg representing Sweden during the 2009 tournament
Status	active
Genre	sporting event
Date(s)	November
Frequency	annual
Location(s)	Helsinki
Country	Finland
Inaugurated	1995 (1995)

Karjala Tournament (Finnish: Karjala-turnaus), also known as Karjala Cup, is an annual ice hockey event held in Finland. The name comes from the sponsoring beer brand Karjala ("Karelia").

The tournament started in 1992 as the Sauna Cup and has been part of the Euro Hockey Tour (EHT) in which Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Sweden participate since 1996 when the name Karjala Tournament was adopted. In 1995 the tournament was played as Christmas Cup at the same time as the Izvestija Trophy tournament just before the Western-Christian Christmas causing Russia to send a reserve team for the tournament.

The Karjala Tournament is usually played in early-November, around Western All Saints Day, during the first year of each EHT season, with the exception of 2001 when no tournament was played and in 2002 when two Karjala Tournaments were played during the same calendar year but were both part of different EHT seasons.

Winner, runner-up and third place is determined by total standing after a round-robin style of play. If teams are tied in points, the standing is determined by won games between the tied teams.