From humble beginnings in 2000 as an industrial league team, the Stavanger Oilers quickly climbed the ladder of Norwegian hockey. They have now won six of the last seven Norwegian championships and are regular competitors in the Champions Hockey League.

by Tobias Eiken

Stavanger Ishockeyklubb, commonly known as the Oilers, is a relatively new club that was formed in 2000 by Stavanger-based Finnish millionaire Harrti Kristola, primarily as something to do for his workers outside of working hours. After one season playing in a company league it was decided to get more serious and this was a start of a fantastic rise through the Norwegian league system that so far has yielded six Norwegian championships and a Continental Cup triumph in of the club's first 16 years of existence.

A meteoric rise

When the Oilers appeared on the Stavanger hockey scene there was no team in the Norwegian Elite League from Stavanger. Viking HK had spent many years in the Elite League as the town’s premier hockey team but two bronze medals were all they had to show for it before the club, for a long time struggling with debt, collapsed in 1995.

When the Oilers started playing in the 2nd Division (third tier) in 2001, it was with a lineup of wildly differing quality. Former Norwegian internationals in their late thirties coming out of retirement combined with local youngsters and former Elite League players now living and working in Stavanger. This was complemented with Finnish workers from Kristola’s company, most of whom had experience from lower Finnish leagues. To make sure that his team was competitive Kristola signed two players, Jari Kesti and Tomi Suoniemi, both with much experience from the Finnish Mestis league, and even some SM-Liiga appearances. These two players would have a profound influence over the Oilers' future.

Lead by Kesti and Suoniemi the Oilers tore through the 2nd Division, winning all games by huge scores. Kesti ended up winning the scoring title, racking up an astonishing 226 points in only 21 games. The 1st Division offered up some resistance, but still the Oilers won 33 of their 36 games, and qualified for the Elite League with relative ease. Kesti again won the scoring race, this time with 150 points in 36 games. The first year in the Elite League ended with a 6th-place finish, with Kesti and Suoniemi getting a stronger supporting cast, and the team surprising Trondheim in the quarter-finals of the playoffs. The final home game in that series sold out (2 600 capacity) with more than 500 people being turned away at the door. The success of the team, winning the bronze medal in their first ever playoff, and with the star power of Kesti winning the Elite League scoring championship with 63 points in 40 games, cemented a hockey interest in Stavanger that has been growing ever since.

Troubled times

After three more or less untroubled years, the next couple of years would be quite different for the Oilers. First Kristola was experiencing financial trouble and the club was signed over to the current group of owners led by Tore Christiansen. Then a whole host of coaches went through the club, but nobody could achieve the success the growing club and fanbase craved. Gunnar Johansson's 2005–06 club managed to go all the way to the final, only to be swept by Vålerenga Oslo. This loss marked the end of the Kesti-Suoniemi era as age and injuries had taken a toll.

With the new ownership group’s financial muscles the team looked stronger and stronger on paper, but could never quite translate the quality onto the ice. Finally, after going through several coaches the club decided to go with the man who had so often stood in their way, former Storhamar and Vålerenga coach Petter Thoresen.

Glory years

The hiring of Thoresen paid dividends almost immediately. Seven straight appearances in the Norwegian league finals, with the Oilers winning six of them, along with becoming the first hockey team from Norway to win a European tournament – the Continental Cup in Rouen, France in 2014 ahead of Donbass Donetsk, the Rouen Dragons and Asiago. This victory got them invited to the Champions Hockey League – a position they have maintained twice by winning the Norwegian title and competed well against clubs from some of Europe's top leagues.

In 2016, Thoresen left the Oilers to take the head coaching job of the Norwegian national team. He was succeeded by long-time assistant Pål Gulbrandsen.

From east to west

Norway’s hockey centre has always been in the east, revolving around Oslo and along the border with Sweden from Lillehammer in the north to Fredrikstad in the south, and although that is where the majority of players are still produced, there are signs that Stavanger on the west coast will at least compete for the mantel of the stronghold of Norwegian hockey in the future. The Oilers were the first team outside of the east to win the playoffs, and have with its state of the art DNB Arena and its three surrounding rinks gained a big following and now have the largest hockey schools for kids in the country.

The Norwegian national team has also begun to arrange most of their home games in Stavanger, and when Norway’s only NHL player, Mats Zuccarello, came home to arrange a charity game for the Right to Play organisation in 2014, the Oslo-born Zuccarello chose Stavanger and DNB Arena, which opened in 2012,  as the venue for his All-Star Game.

Legends

Even though the Oilers have a very short history, two numbers have been retired. Kesti’s number 7 and Suoniemi’s number 22 hang in the rafters at DNB Arena. Although they only played for the Oilers for five seasons, their importance in building the popularity of the team cannot be understated.

Finnish-born defenceman Juha Kaunismaki was, after he changed nationalities, the club's first “own” national team player participating in the Vancouver Olympics and captained the club to its first three championships. Martin Strandfeldt, the Swedish forward, is the club's all-time leading scorer with 384 points in 294 regular season games and adding 116 points in 100 playoff games for an even 500 points for the club before retiring in 2014.

Arguably the biggest name to play for the club was the Nashville Predators’ Eric Nystrom, who played six games for the club during the 2012–13 NHL lockout. In his home debut he scored 4 goals and 3 assists in a 9–3 hammering of arch-rival Valerenga and ensured instant legendary status.

The biggest name for a local player would be Tore Vikingstad, who bookended a great career in Sweden and Germany by playing for Viking HK as a youngster and finishing his career with the overtime assist that won the 2013 championship for the Oilers.

Team facts

CHL seasons

2015–16: 1st in Group L, Round of 32 
2014–15: 2nd in Group E

Click here for current information about the club.

NOTE: This article has been updated since its original publication.