Minatsu Kovács (born 23 June 1995) is a Swedish

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 ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

, playing in the Swiss Women's Hockey League B (SWHL B) with Lausanne HC Féminin. She represented Sweden in the women's ice hockey tournament at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

PyeongChang Pyeongchang (; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ; ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seou ...

Playing career

Kovács played her first regular season in the (renamed SDHL in 2016) in 2012, as a 17-year-old, with

AIK Hockey Allmänna Idrottsklubben Ishockeyförening (abbreviated ''AIK IF'', also known as ''AIK Hockey'', often abbreviated ''AIK'' in hockey subjects), is the ice hockey department of sports club Allmänna Idrottsklubben based in Stockholm, Sweden. S ...

. The following year, she claimed the starting job as the club won the SDHL championship. She was named Best Goaltender of the for the 2015–16 season. Kovács missed most of 2018–19 season due to pregnancy. In the summer of 2019, she left AIK to sign with

Luleå HF/MSSK Luleå Hockey/MSSK is a professional ice hockey team in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL), the top-tier of women's ice hockey in Sweden. They play in Luleå, a port city in northern Sweden, at the Coop Norrbotten Arena. The team is the m ...

. In January 2020, Kovács announced that she was leaving Luleå and joining HC Örnen in the men's Hockeyettan as they competed for promotion to HockeyAllsvenskan. She did not play during the following season, as she was pregnant with her second child. Kovács made her return to the SDHL for the 2021–22 season, announcing a one-year contract with AIK in April 2021. She officially retired after the 2021–22 season, explaining that trying to balance playing elite ice hockey and caring for her two young children wasn’t sustainable in a healthy way, particularly since she could not make a living as a player. After sitting out the 2022–23 regular season, Kovács joined the women's team of Lausanne HC in the SWHL B playoffs and chose to continue with the team in the 2023–24 season.

International

She was named Best Goaltender at the

2013 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship The 2013 IIHF World Women's U18 Championships was the sixth IIHF World Women's U18 Championships and was hosted in Finland. It began on December 29, 2012, with the gold medal game played on January 5, 2013. Top Division Preliminary round ''Al ...

, as Sweden won bronze. She competed in the

Personal life

Kovács and her husband, professional ice hockey forward Robin Kovács, have three children – born in October 2018, September 2020, and November 2022.

References

External links

* * 1995 births Living people AIK Hockey Dam players Swedish expatriate ice hockey players in Switzerland Ice hockey people from Stockholm Ice hockey players at the 2018 Winter Olympics Luleå HF/MSSK players Olympic ice hockey players for Sweden Swedish women's ice hockey goaltenders {{Sweden-icehockey-bio-stub