Anni-Elina Montonen (born 7 May 2000) is a Finnish

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player and member of the Finnish national team, currently playing in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) with

HV71 Dam HV71 are a professional ice hockey club in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL). They play in Jönköping, in the southern Swedish province of Småland, at the Husqvarna Garden. History The club was originally formed independently in Ma ...

Playing career

As a youth, Montonen developed in the

minor ice hockey Minor hockey is an umbrella term for amateur ice hockey which is played below the junior age level. Players are classified by age, with each age group playing in its own league. The rules, especially as it relates to body contact, vary from cla ...

department of , an ice hockey club in her home-city of

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

Greater Helsinki Greater Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin seutu, Suur-Helsinki, Swedish: ''Helsingforsregionen'', ''Storhelsingfors'') is the metropolitan area surrounding Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. It includes the smaller Capital Region (''Pääkaupunkiseutu' ...

on the south coast of Finland. In 2015, she began playing with Blues EKS teams, which were the products of a partnership between the (EKS) and Espoo Blues ice hockey clubs. Montonen spent most of 2016–17 playing with the Blues EKS under-18 (U18) team in the () and she led the team in scoring with 9 goals and 20 points in fourteen games. In the same season, she made her senior league debut with Blues EKS in the

Naisten Suomi-sarja The Naisten Suomi-sarja (), distinguished as the Jääkiekon naisten Suomi-sarja (), is the third-tier women's ice hockey league in Finland. It was established by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2003 and is the lowest tier of national ice h ...

and tallied 3 goals and an assist in two games played with the team. In the 2017–18 season, she led the in goals and ranked second in the league for points, tallying 23 goals and 31 points in seventeen games. Montonen also played a single game each in the

Naisten Liiga The Kansallinen Liiga ('National League') is the premier division of women's football in Finland. It was previously called the Jalkapallon naisten SM-sarja ('Women's Football Finnish Championship Series') during 1974 to 2006 and the Naisten Lii ...

with the Espoo Blues and in the Naisten Suomi-sarja with .

Naisten Liiga

Her Naisten Liiga career began in earnest in the 2018–19 season, during which she played sixteen regular season games with the Espoo Blues, notching a goal and five assists, and won her first Aurora Borealis Cup with the team. The Espoo Blues were renamed as Kiekko-Espoo ahead of the

2019–20 Naisten Liiga season The 2019–20 Naisten Liiga season was the thirty-seventh season of the Naisten Liiga, the premier level of women's ice hockey in Finland, since the league’s establishment in 1982. The postseason was cancelled by the Finnish Ice Hockey Associ ...

and Montonen remained on the roster through the transition. Over the following four seasons with Kiekko-Espoo, she won two more Finnish Championships and made major strides in her development, increasing her point from just one assist across ten games during the 2019–20 season to 42 points (21+21) across 34 games of the 2022–23 season. Both her regular season goals and regular season points ranked tenth in the league for the 2022–23 season and she led all Kiekko-Espoo players in scoring.

SDHL

In June 2023, Montonen signed her first international contract with HV71 Dam, based in

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat of Jönköping Municipali ...

, Sweden. She joined a roster that also featured fellow Finnish national team players

Sanni Hakala Sanni Hakala (born 31 October 1997) is a Finnish retired ice hockey player and former member of the Finnish national team. She played more than seven seasons with HV71 in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) after beginning her career in the ...

Anni Keisala Anni Keisala (born 5 April 1997) is a Finnish ice hockey goaltender and member of the Finland women's national ice hockey team, Finnish national team, currently signed with HV71 Dam of the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) for the 2022–23 SD ...

, Emmi Rakkolainen, and

Kiira Yrjänen Kiira Yrjänen (born 2 January 2002) is a Finnish ice hockey player and member of the Finnish national team, currently playing in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) with HV71. She was officially named to the Finnish roster for the 2020 II ...

International play

Montonen received her first invitation to play with the national team at age 22 and was selected to participate in every game of the 2022–23 Euro Hockey Tour. She recorded her first international point on a goal against at the EHT Five Nations Tournament in Ängelholm, with assists from Jenna Kaila and

Emmi Rakkolainen Emmi Rakkolainen (born 9 August 1996) is a Finnish ice hockey player and member of the Finland women's national ice hockey team, Finnish national team, currently playing in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) with HV71 (women), HV71 Dam. P ...

. The season culminated in her World Championship debut at the

2023 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship will be an international ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) which will be contested in Brampton, Canada from 5 to 16 April 2023, at the CAA Centre. Particip ...

, where she played on the fourth-line with Emmi Rakkolainen and Anna-Kaisa Antti-Roiko.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Montonen, Anni 2000 births Living people Espoo Blues Naiset players Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Sweden Finnish women's ice hockey forwards HV71 (women) players Ice hockey people from Espoo Kiekko-Espoo Naiset players