Petra Nieminen

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

Petra Nieminen
Born	(1999-05-04) 4 May 1999 (age 23) 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 2018 Pyeongchang Ice hockey 2022 Beijing Ice hockey World Championship 2019 Finland 2017 United States 2021 Canada

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]

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
2013–14	Tappara	Naisten Mestis		16	22	8	30	2		1	0	0	0	0
2014–15	Tappara	Naisten Mestis		3	8	3	11	2		–	–	–	–	–
2015–16	Team Kuortane	Naisten SM-sarja		25	15	8	23	14		2	1	0	1	0
2016–17	Team Kuortane	Naisten SM-sarja		23	15	13	28	16		2	2	1	3	0
2017–18	Team Kuortane	Naisten SM-liiga		21	12	16	28	10		8	7	8	15	4
2018–19	Luleå HF/MSSK	SDHL		34	13	11	24	6		11	6	5	11	6
2019–20	Luleå HF/MSSK	SDHL		36	25	30	55	43		6	7	1	8	2
2020–21	Luleå HF/MSSK	SDHL		32	24	23	47	16		9	6	4	10	8
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

Year	Team	Event	Result		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
2015	Finland U18	WW18	5th		5	2	3	5	0
2016	Finland U18	WW18	6th		5	4	2	6	2
2016	Finland	WW	4th		6	1	2	3	2
2017	Finland U18	WW18	5th		5	2	3	5	4
2017	Finland	WW			6	3	0	3	2
2018	Finland	OG			6	3	2	5	0
2019	Finland	WW			7	2	1	3	0
2021	Finland	WW			7	6	1	7	0
2022	Finland	OG			7	3	5	8	6
2022	Finland	WW	6th		6	1	3	4	25
Junior totals					15	8	8	16	6
Senior totals					45	19	14	33	35

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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
3. Päiväniemi, Jarkko (6 April 2019). "VM-succéns förflutna – med NHL-stjärnan". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 7 January 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
5. 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: url-status (link)
6. Berander, Moa (8 September 2020). "Mest värdefulla spelaren missar premiären". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 7 January 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
9. . www.lgstours.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
10. "2015 World Selects Invitational – U15 Bolzano, Italy". LEGACY Global Sports. 30 April 2015. p. 19. Retrieved 7 January 2021 – via Issuu.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
13. (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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
16. "IIHF explains why the goal that cost Finland gold was disallowed". CTV News. 15 April 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
17. "U.S. wins world title after Finland goal nixed". ESPN. 14 April 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links

• Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or Eurohockey.com
• Petra Nieminen at Olympedia  
• Petra Nieminen on Instagram