Petra Nieminen

Petra Nieminen
Born (1999-05-04) 4 May 1999 (age 25)
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 Ice hockey
Bronze medal – third place 2022 Beijing Ice hockey
World Championship
Silver medal – second place 2019 Finland
Bronze medal – third place 2017 United States
Bronze medal – third place 2021 Canada
Bronze medal – third place 2024 United States

Petra Nieminen (born 4 May 1999) is a Finnish ice hockey player for Luleå HF/MSSK of the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) and alternate captain of Finland women's national ice hockey team. She is considered one of the top young talents in Finnish ice hockey.[1][2]

Playing career

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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.[3][4] 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 to play with Team Kuortane in the Naisten SM-sarja (renamed Naisten Liiga in 2017). In her first season with Kuortane, Nieminen led 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, leading 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.[5] 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 canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden. She was named the 2020 SDHL MVP and was a Forward of the Year Award finalist.[6]

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.[7]

International career

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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 recorded two goals and three assists in five games.[8][9] She scored seven goals and tallied seven assists for the Finland Selects at the 2015 World Selects Invitational in Bolzano.[10][11]

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.[12][13]

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.[14][15][16] 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.[17] 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.[18]

Career statistics

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Regular season and playoffs

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Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2013–14 Tappara N. Mestis 16 22 8 30 2 1 0 0 0 0
2014–15 Tappara N. Mestis 3 8 3 11 2 – – – – –
2015–16 Team Kuortane NSMs 25 15 8 23 14 2 1 0 1 0
2016–17 Team Kuortane NSML 23 15 13 28 16 2 2 1 3 0
2017–18 Team Kuortane NSML 21 12 16 28 10 8 7 8 15 4
2018–19 Luleå/MSSK SDHL 34 13 11 24 6 11 6 5 11 6
2019–20 Luleå/MSSK SDHL 36 25 30 55 43 6 7 1 8 2
2020–21 Luleå/MSSK SDHL 32 24 23 47 16 9 6 4 10 8
2021–22 Luleå/MSSK SDHL 34 26 29 55 53 12 5 6 11 10
2022–23 Luleå/MSSK SDHL 32 30 23 53 20 8 7 7 14 2
Naisten Liiga totals 69 42 37 79 40 12 10 9 19 4
SDHL totals 102 62 64 126 65 26 19 10 29 16

International

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Year Team Event Result   GP G A Pts PIM
2015 Finland U18 5th 5 2 3 5 0
2016 Finland U18 6th 5 4 2 6 2
2016 Finland WWC 4th 6 1 2 3 2
2017 Finland U18 5th 5 2 3 5 4
2017 Finland WWC 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 6 3 0 3 2
2018 Finland OG 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 6 3 2 5 0
2019 Finland WWC 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 7 2 1 3 0
2021 Finland WWC 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 7 6 1 7 0
2022 Finland OG 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 7 3 5 8 6
2022 Finland WWC 6th 6 1 3 4 25
2023 Finland WWC 5th 7 6 7 13 2
Junior totals 15 8 8 16 6
Senior totals 62 25 21 46 37

Sources: [19][20]

Awards and honors

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Award Year
International
World U18 Top-3 Player on Team 2016
Olympic Bronze Medal 2018, 2022
World Championship Bronze Medal 2017, 2021
World Championship Silver Medal 2019
World Championship All-Star Team 2021, 2023[21]
Swedish Women's Hockey League
SDHL Champion 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023
Top Goal Scorer, regular season 2022–23
Naisten Liiga
Noora Räty Award (Rookie of the Year) 2015–16
Player of the Month December 2017
All-Star First Team 2017–18
Finnish Championship Bronze Medal 2017–19
Katja Riipi Award (Forward of the Year) 2017–18

References

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  1. ^ Kennedy, Ian (8 September 2022). "Top 35 U-23 Players in Women's Hockey". The Hockey News. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ Päiväniemi, Jarkko (6 April 2019). "VM-succéns förflutna – med NHL-stjärnan". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ Norrbotten, P4 (27 May 2020). "Nieminen utsedd till SDHL:s mest värdefulla spelare". Sveriges Radio (Radio segment) (in Swedish). Retrieved 7 January 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Berander, Moa (8 September 2020). "Mest värdefulla spelaren missar premiären". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  8. ^ "2015 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship, Statistics – Tournament Info". IIHF. 30 March 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  9. ^ "2015 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship, Player Statistics by Team – FIN - Finland" (PDF). IIHF. 29 March 2014. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 June 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  10. ^ "Finland Selects". www.lgstours.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  11. ^ "2015 World Selects Invitational – U15 Bolzano, Italy". LEGACY Global Sports. 30 April 2015. p. 19. Archived from the original on 14 September 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2021 – via Issuu.
  12. ^ "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.
  13. ^ "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.
  14. ^ "2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship – Team Roster: FIN - Finland" (PDF). IIHF. 4 April 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 February 2018. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  15. ^ "2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship – Player Statistics by Team: FIN - Finland" (PDF). IIHF. 4 April 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 April 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  16. ^ "2016 Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship / 2016 Championnat mondial de hockey sur glace féminin M18". IIHF. 2016. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  17. ^ "IIHF explains why the goal that cost Finland gold was disallowed". CTV News. 15 April 2019. Archived from the original on 13 November 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  18. ^ "U.S. wins world title after Finland goal nixed". ESPN. 14 April 2019. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  19. ^ Podnieks, Andrew; Nordmark, Birger, eds. (2019). "Active Skaters, Women". IIHF Guide & Record Book 2020. Toronto: Moydart. p. 656. ISBN 9780986796470.
  20. ^ "2023 IIHF Women's World Championship – Player Statistics by Team: FIN - Finland". IIHF. 16 April 2023. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  21. ^ Podnieks, Andrew (17 April 2023). "Fillier named MVP". IIHF. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
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