Susanna Tapani

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Susanna Tapani
Born (1993-03-02) 2 March 1993 (age 28)
Laitila, Southwest Finland, Finland
Height 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight 65 kg (143 lb; 10 st 3 lb)
Position Forward
Shoots Left
ZhHL team
Former teams		 KRS Vanke Rays
National team  Finland
Playing career 2011–present
hide
Medal record
Representing  Finland
Women's ice hockey
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Pyeongchang Team
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 2019 Finland
Bronze medal – third place 2011 Switzerland
Bronze medal – third place 2015 Sweden
Bronze medal – third place 2017 United States
Bronze medal – third place 2021 Canada
Ringette
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2010 Finland
Gold medal – first place 2016 Finland
Gold medal – first place 2017 Canada
Gold medal – first place 2019 Canada

Susanna "Suski" Tapani (born 2 March 1993) is a multi-sport elite athlete who competes in Finnish ice hockey, ringette, and in-line hockey. Tapani is a member of the Finland women's national ice hockey team, and captain of the Finland National Ringette Team. She currently plays with the KRS Vanke Rays of the Russian Zhenskaya Hockey League (ZhHL).[1]

Tapani is the subject of a Finnish documentary, ('Icebreaker'), which follows her life as she competes in elite ringette, ice hockey, and in-line hockey from 2015 to 2019.[2]

Ice hockey career[]

Tapani has played ice hockey in the Naisten Liiga with TPS Naiset, Lukko Naiset, Espoo Blues Naiset, and HPK Kiekkonaiset; in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) with Linköping HC Dam; and with the North Dakota Fighting Hawks during the 2013–14 NCAA Division I women's ice hockey season.[3]

Finnish national ice hockey team head coach Pasi Mustonen has called Tapani the team’s best forward.[4]

Tapani trained with a number of men's professional ice hockey players during the extended pause between the 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons due to COVID-19. Under the direction of Ismo Lehkonen, the group – which included NHLers Kaapo Kako, Artturi Lehkonen, Mikko Rantanen, and Rasmus Ristolainen, and a number of Liiga players – trained on ice together for two hours a day. Jonne Virtanen, long-time Liiga player and member of the training group, noted that Tapani's strength and toughness would be well suited to a style of play that permitted checking and enthused, "Suski is the best female player that I have ever seen."[4]

During the 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons, Tapani played with the TPS Juniorijääkiekko men's under-18 (U18) team, known as TPS U18 Akatemia, of the U18 Mestis/U18 Suomi-sarja until scheduling conflicts forced her to choose between ringette and ice hockey in November 2020.[5] When it became clear that the TPS U18 Akatemia was unable or unwilling to alter its schedule to accommodate Tapani, she chose to leave the team and continue playing ringette with RNK Raisio of the Finnish professional ringette league, which is the ringette team she captains. Regarding the situation, Tapani stated, "I’m not commenting on the discussions [with TPS] or the way this came to be, but combining the two sports didn’t fit when there were too many overlapping games."[6]

International play[]

Tapani made three appearances for the Finland women's national under-18 ice hockey team at the IIHF Women's World U18 Championship. in 2009, 2010, and 2011, winning a bronze medal at the 2011 tournament.[7][8][9]

As of 2020, Tapani ranks sixth in all-time points scored with the Finnish women's national team, tallying 75 goals and 72 assists for 147 points in 179 top division matches.[10] She has represented Finland at every IIHF Women's World Championship since 2011, except the 2016 tournament.[11][12][13][14][15] At the 2017 IIHF Women's World Championship, she was Finland’s leading scorer and ranked fifth for scoring in the tournament overall with 3 goals and 6 assists for 9 points in 5 games.[16]

Tapani has also competed with the Finnish national team at the Winter Olympic Games, debuting in the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Though Finland suffered their worst Olympic placement in team history, Tapani saw individual success and tied teammate Riikka Sallinen for third rank on the Finnish scoring list, with 1 goal and 4 assists in 6 games.[17] In the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Finland won bronze and Tapani finished fourth in the team’s scoring ranks, with 2 goals and 3 assists in 6 games.[18]

Career statistics[]

Regular season and playoffs[]

Note: Italics indicate postseason relegation series; statistics not included in playoff totals.

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2009-10 LaJy U16 U16 II-divisioona 22 28 22 50 10 — — — — —
2010-11 LaJy U16 U16 II-divisioona 2 0 1 1 2 — — — — —
2010-11 LaJy U18 U18 III-divisioona 9 5 8 13 2 — — — — —
2011-12 LaJy U18 U18 II-divisioona 11 9 13 22 2 — — — — —
2011-12 HPK Naisten SM-sarja 4 2 2 4 6 4 2 1 3 0
2012-13 Kiekko-67 U18 U18 Suomi-sarja 6 4 2 6 0 — — — — —
2012-13 Espoo Blues Naisten SM-sarja 3 0 2 2 2 5 2 1 3 2
2013-14 UND Fighting Hawks NCAA 24 8 12 20 12 — — — — —
2014-15 HPK Naisten SM-sarja 8 6 4 10 10 6 7 14 21 2
2015-16 HPK Naisten SM-sarja 5 4 3 7 0 8 4 4 8 2
2016-17 Lukko Naisten SM-sarja 10 5 4 9 2 5 10 5 15 4
2017-18 Lukko Naisten Liiga 7 5 4 9 6 — — — — —
2018-19 TPS Naisten Liiga 16 24 8 32 14 — — — — —
2018-19 Linköping HC SDHL — — — — — 10 4 3 7 2
2019-20 TPS U18 U18 Suomi-sarja 16 5 10 15 2 — — — — —
2019-20 TPS Naisten Liiga — — — — — 1 0 2 2 4
2020-21 TPS U18 U18 Mestis 1 0 2 2 0 — — — — —
Naisten Liiga totals 53 46 27 73 40 23 15 20 35 6

International[]

Year Team Event Result   GP G A Pts PIM
2009 Finland U18 WW18 5th 5 3 0 3 0
2010 Finland U18 WW18 5th 5 2 1 3 4
2011 Finland U18 WW18 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 6 4 2 6 33
2011 Finland WW 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 6 1 2 3 4
2012 Finland WW 4th 6 1 0 1 2
2013 Finland WW 4th 6 0 0 0 2
2014 Finland OG 5th 6 1 4 5 2
2015 Finland WW 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 6 1 2 3 2
2017 Finland WW 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 6 3 6 9 2
2018 Finland OG 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 6 2 3 5 4
2019 Finland WW 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 7 4 2 6 10
2021 Finland WW 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 7 3 2 5 6
Junior totals 16 9 3 12 37
Senior totals 56 16 21 37 34

Source: [19]

Ringette career[]

Tapani has played ringette in the , a high performance ringette league in Finland. She played with the RNK Flyers club.

References[]

  1. ^ "Две россиянки, трое призёров ЧМ-2021: «КРС Ванке Рэйз» обновили состав". Женская хоккейная лига (in Russian). 3 September 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  2. ^ Aykroyd, Lucas (4 April 2020). "Best women's hockey documentaries". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  3. ^ Dodds, David L. (January 2014). "UND's 'dynamo dozen' headed to the Olympic Games". UND Today. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Teiskonlahti, Kirsi (8 April 2021). "Tukalaan tilanteeseen joutunut Susanna Tapani pääsi kovaan treeniseuraan – kyykytti NHL-pelaajaa ja voitti kaksinkamppailussa 118-kiloisen Jonne Virtasen". Yle (in Finnish). Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  5. ^ Karttunen, Anu (2 November 2020). "Naisleijonien huipputykki Susanna Tapani joutui tylyyn tilanteeseen: joutuu etsimään itselleen uuden joukkueen". Yle (in Finnish). Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  6. ^ Jalonen, Pekka (2 November 2020). "Susanna Tapani valitsi ringeten, ei saa enää pelata TPS:ssa: "Aiheutti pahaa verta"". Iltalehti (in Finnish). Retrieved 26 July 2021. En kommentoi keskusteluja tai tapaa miten tähän päädyttiin, mutta kahden lajin yhdistäminen ei sopinut, kun pelejä oli liikaa päällekkäin.
  7. ^ IIHF – Team Finland Stats – 2009 U-18 World Championship[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ IIHF – Team Finland Stats – 2010 U-18 World Championship[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ IIHF – Team Finland Stats – 2011 U-18 World Championship[permanent dead link]
  10. ^ Suomen Jääkiekkoliitto; Jääkiekkon SM-liiga Oy (2020). Aaltonen, Juha (ed.). Jääkiekkokirja 2021: Suomen Jääkiekkoliiton ja Liiga Kausijulkaisu 2020–2021 (PDF) (in Finnish). Helsinki: Uusi Suomi/Kiekkolehti. p. 321. ISSN 0784-3321. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  11. ^ IIHF (2011). IIHF Media Guide & Record Book 2012. Fenn/M&S. p. 557. ISBN 978-0-7710-9598-6.
  12. ^ https://reports.iihf.hockey/Hydra/252/IHW2520FIN_83_6_0.pdf[permanent dead link] IIHF - Team Finland Stats - 2011 World Championship]]
  13. ^ IIHF - Team Finland Stats - 2012 World Championship[permanent dead link]
  14. ^ IIHF – Team Finland Stats – 2013 World Championship Archived 31 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ 2015 IIHF World Championship roster Archived 13 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ "2017 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship – Scoring Leaders" (PDF). IIHF. 7 April 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  17. ^ IIHF – Team Finland Stats – 2014 Olympics
  18. ^ "PeyongChang 2018 – Ice Hockey, Women – Scoring Leaders" (PDF). IIHF. 22 February 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  19. ^ Podnieks, Andrew; Nordmark, Birger, eds. (2019). IIHF Guide & Record Book 2020. Toronto: Moydart. p. 663. ISBN 9780986796470.

External links[]

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