AFP - Finnish ice hockey coach Jukka Jalonen plumped for experience Wednesday in selecting veterans Teemu Selanne and Jere Lehtinen in his 23-man squad for the Vancouver Games.

Selanne, who began his Olympic dream back in 1992 in Albertville, will turn 40 in the summer while Jalonen, who was in the 1994 squad at Lillehammer, turns 37 in June.

In Vancouver they will bid to go one better than the silver medal won four years ago in Turin, when Sweden edged them out 3-2.

Before that they had to be satisfied with bronze in Nagano, Japan, in 1998.

Lehtinen, who plays for the Dallas Stars, also bagged another bronze four years earlier.

Selanne, of the Anaheim Ducks and who was not at Lillehammer, recently had surgery on a fractured hand suffered in a game at Dallas but the man named as the all-star top forward in the 2006 edition hopes to be back with the Ducks from early January.

Jalonen has retained 15 of the squad who went to the trophy match in Turin - while no less than 18 play in North America.

Not a single one of the roster plays on home ice.

Defenseman Janne Niskala plays for Frolunda in the Swedish league while forwards Niko Kapanen (Ak Bars Kazan), Ville Peltonen (Dynamo Minsk), Jarkko Immonen (Ak Bars Kazan) and defender Lasse Kukkonen (Avangard Omsk) all play in the Russian league.

Anaheim Ducks star Saku Koivu will skipper the squad.

The Finns begin their Olympic challenge on February 17 against Belarus. The Swedes and Germany complete Group C.