Petra Nieminen

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Petra Nieminen
Born (1999-05-04) 4 May 1999 (age 22)
Tampere, Pirkanmaa, Finland
Height 1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight 64 kg (141 lb; 10 st 1 lb)
Position Forward
Shoots Left
SDHL team
Former teams		 Luleå HF/MSSK
Team Kuortane
National team  Finland
Playing career 2013–present
Medal record
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Pyeongchang Team
World Championship
Silver medal – second place 2019 Finland
Bronze medal – third place 2017 United States
Bronze medal – third place 2021 Canada

Petra Nieminen (born 4 May 1999) is a Finnish ice hockey player for Luleå HF/MSSK in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) and the Finnish national team. She is considered one of the most promising young talents in Finnish hockey.[1]

Playing career[]

Nieminen's minor ice hockey career was played with the junior teams of Tappara in her hometown of Tampere. She played on boys' teams during her childhood and into her teen years, playing on the same youth team as future NHLer Patrik Laine.[2][3] Beginning when she was 13, she intermittently played with the Tappara representative women's team in the Naisten Mestis and Naisten Suomi-sarja, the second- and third-tier women’s senior leagues in Finland.

At age 16, she moved to Kuortane and began attending the Kuortaneen urheilulukio in order to play with Team Kuortane in the Naisten SM-sarja (renamed Naisten Liiga in 2017). In her first season with Kuortane, Nieminen lead the team in scoring, tallying 23 points (15 goals + 8 assists) in 25 games played, and was recognized with the Noora Räty Award as best rookie in the Naisten SM-sarja. She was the team’s scoring leader again in the 2016–17 season. In her third season, she was Kuortane’s second-highest scorer, lead the team in points per game, despite missing nine of 30 regular season games because she was representing Finland in the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and was named Naisten Liiga Player of the Month for December 2017. Her 15 points (7+8) in eight playoff games helped Team Kuortane claim the Aurora Borealis Cup bronze medal, the first Finnish Championship medal in team history. She was awarded the 2018 Katja Riipi Award for best forward in the Naisten Liiga and was named to the 2018 All-Star First Team.

In 2018, she left Finland to sign with Luleå HF/MSSK in Luleå, Sweden, joining fellow Finnish national team players Jenni Hiirikoski, Michelle Karvinen, Ronja Savolainen, and Noora Tulus on the SDHL team.[4] She scored 24 points (13+11) in 34 games of her rookie SDHL season and contributed 11 points (6+5) in eleven playoff games as Luleå won the SDHL championship.

She more than doubled her point total in the 2019–20 season, scoring 55 points (25+30) in 36 games, leading the team in scoring and finishing third in points among all players in the league. She added another 8 points in 6 playoff games as Luleå returned to the SDHL finals to face HV71 before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden. She was named the 2020 SDHL MVP, and was a Forward of the Year Award finalist.[5]

During the 2020 off-season, she underwent a knee operation that caused her to miss the first few games of the 2020–21 SDHL season.[6]

International career[]

Nieminen has represented Finland in international ice hockey competition since 2015, first appearing with the Finnish national under-18 team at the 2015 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship in Buffalo, New York, where she notched five points (2+3) in five games.[7][8] She scored seven goals and tallied seven assists for the Finland Selects at the 2015 World Selects Invitational in Bolzano.[9][10]

At the 2016 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship, she was the team leader in points and goals, scoring four goals and two assists in five games, and was selected by the coaches as one of the top-3 players on the team.[11][12]

She made her debut with the Finnish national team at the 2016 IIHF Women's World Championship, notching three points in six games as Finland finished in fourth.[13][14][15] She has played for Finland in every World Championship since, scoring three goals in six games the 2017 IIHF Women's World Championship, as Finland won bronze.

She scored five points in six games for Finland at the 2018 Winter Olympics, the country winning bronze.

At the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship, she scored an overtime goal in the gold medal game that would have marked the first time a country other than the United States or Canada won World Championship gold. However, after a twelve minute video review, the goal was disallowed in a call that sparked intense controversy.[16] She was one of the five Finnish players to then take a shot in the shootout, which culminated in a victory for the United States.[17]

References[]

  1. ^ Jay, Michelle (7 August 2020). "2020 Top 25 Under 25 | No. 21-23: Emily Clark & Petra Nieminen, Jincy Dunne". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  2. ^ Arkimies, Tuomas (6 April 2019). "Naisleijonien tähti pelasi juniorina Patrik Laineen kanssa: "Se oli lähes aina maali"". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  3. ^ Päiväniemi, Jarkko (6 April 2019). "VM-succéns förflutna – med NHL-stjärnan". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  4. ^ Skoglund, Henrik (5 June 2018). "OS-spelare till Luleå: "Hjälpa en sådan här stortalang vidare i karriären känns jättebra"". HockeySverige (in Swedish). Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  5. ^ "Nieminen utsedd till SDHL:s mest värdefulla spelare". Sveriges Radio (Radio segment) (in Swedish). 27 May 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  6. ^ Berander, Moa (8 September 2020). "Mest värdefulla spelaren missar premiären". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  7. ^ "2015 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship, Statistics – Tournament Info". webarchive.iihf.com. International Ice Hockey Federation. 30 March 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  8. ^ "2015 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship, Player Statistics by Team – FIN - Finland" (PDF). stats.iihf.com. International Ice Hockey Federation. 29 March 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  9. ^ "Finland Selects". www.lgstours.com. Retrieved 9 August 2018.[dead link]
  10. ^ "2015 World Selects Invitational – U15 Bolzano, Italy". LEGACY Global Sports. 30 April 2015. p. 19. Retrieved 7 January 2021 – via Issuu.
  11. ^ "2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship, Player Statistics by Team – FIN - Finland" (PDF). stats.iihf.com. IIHF. 14 January 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  12. ^ "2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship, Best Players of Each Team Selected by Coaches" (PDF). stats.worldjunior2016.com. IIHF. 15 January 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  13. ^ "2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship – Team Roster: FIN - Finland" (PDF). reports.iihf.hockey. International Ice Hockey Federation. 4 April 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 February 2018. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  14. ^ "2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship – Player Statistics by Team: FIN - Finland" (PDF). stats.iihf.com. International Ice Hockey Federation. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  15. ^ "2016 Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship / 2016 Championnat mondial de hockey sur glace féminin M18". u18worldwomen2016.iihf.com. International Ice Hockey Federation. 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  16. ^ "IIHF explains why the goal that cost Finland gold was disallowed". CTV News. 15 April 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  17. ^ "U.S. wins world title after Finland goal nixed". ESPN. 14 April 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2021.

External links[]

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