ESPOO, Finland – Before starting an groundbreaking season in the Champions Hockey League, Finland’s Espoo Blues has re-signed their coaching staff until 2010.

Head coach Petri Matikainen and assistant coaches Lauri Marjamaki and Marko Torenius extended their contracts and will stay with the Espoo Blues at least until the end of the 2009-2010 season. The 40-year-old Matikainen, who earned the Kalevi Numminen Award as the SM-Liiga coach of the year, enters his fourth season with the Blues. For Marjamaki, the upcoming season is his seventh, for Torenius its his third year.

“We’re very pleased with the contract extensions. The trio knows the team very well and made a great job in the last months. The contract extensions will bring us more consistency and it will permit us to be successful in the upcoming years,” Espoo Blues GM Tom Kivimaki says.

The 1984-founded club has played in the SM-Liiga since 1992 and had it’s best-ever season, finishing both the regular season and the playoffs in second-place behind Karpat Oulu. It was Matikainen’s first season as a head coach after serving as an assistant to his predecessor Kari Heikkila for three years.

The Espoo Blues will play in international competition for the first time in 2008-2009. Their opponents in the CHL group stage are Swedish champion HV71 Jonkoping and the qualifier (Kosice, Bern, or Nuremberg).