Petra Nieminen (born 4 May 1999) 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 h ...

player and alternate captain of the Finnish national team, currently playing in the

Swedish Women's Hockey League The Swedish Women's Hockey League ( sv, Svenska damhockeyligan), abbreviated SDHL, is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was established in 2007 as the by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and was renamed prior to the 2016– ...

(SDHL) 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 ...

. She is considered one of the top young talents in Finnish ice hockey.

Playing career

Nieminen's

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 c ...

career was played with the junior teams of

Tappara Tappara (; Finnish for "Battle axe") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team playing in the Liiga. They play at ''Tampere Deck Arena'' in Tampere, Finland. The team has won 18 Finnish league championships (1959, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, 1979, ...

in her hometown of

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

. She played on boys' teams during her childhood and into her teen years, playing on the same youth team as future NHLer

Patrik Laine Patrik Laine (; born 19 April 1998) is a Finnish professional ice hockey winger who currently plays for the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League. Laine formerly played in his native Finland with Tappara in the Finnish Liiga befor ...

. Beginning when she was 13, she intermittently played with the Tappara representative women's team in the

Naisten Mestis Naisten Mestis (; from ''Mestaruussarja'' meaning 'Championship series') is the second-highest women's ice hockey league in Finland. The league was founded as Naisten I-divisioona (Women's First Division) in 1985 by the Finnish Ice Hockey Associ ...

and Naisten Suomi-sarja, the second-and third-tier women’s senior leagues in Finland. At age 16, she moved to

Kuortane Kuortane is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the South Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The neighboring municipalities of Kuortane are Al ...

and began attending the

Kuortaneen urheilulukio Kuortaneen lukio ja urheilulukio or the Kuortane Lukio and Sports Academy is a general and sports-specialised in Kuortane, Finland. The sports academy is overseen by the Finnish Olympic Committee and affiliated with the Kuortane Olympic Trainin ...

to play with

Team Kuortane Team Kuortane is an ice hockey team in the Naisten Liiga, the premier women's hockey league in Finland. They are based at the Kuortaneen urheilulukio in Kuortane, a small town in South Ostrobothnia, and play at the (). The team was founded by ...

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 A goal is an objective that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve. Goal may also refer to: Sport * Goal (sports), a method of scoring in many sports, or the physical structure or area where scoring occurs ** Goals, the goal frame in ...

+ 8 assists) in 25 games played and was recognized with the Noora Räty Award as best

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

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 In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of ...

games because she was representing Finland in the women's ice hockey tournament at the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics ( ko, 2018년 동계 올림픽, Icheon sip-pal nyeon Donggye Ollimpik), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (french: Les XXIIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver; ko, 제23회 동계 올림픽, Jeisipsamhoe Donggye Ollimpi ...

, 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 The Aurora Borealis Cup ( fi, Aurora Borealis -malja) is the trophy awarded to the Finnish Champion in women's ice hockey, the victorious team of the Naisten Liiga playoffs. The Aurora Borealis Cup was created to honor the quality of play in Na ...

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

in Luleå, Sweden, joining fellow Finnish national team players

Jenni Hiirikoski Jenni Hiirikoski (born 30 March 1987) is a Finnish ice hockey player and captain of Luleå HF/MSSK in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (; SDHL) and the Finnish national team. She is widely considered one of the best active ice hockey defence ...

Michelle Karvinen Michelle Karvinen (born 27 March 1990) is a Danish-Finnish ice hockey player and member of the Finnish national team, currently signed with Frölunda HC Dam of the Damettan. Karvinen has been described as "the world's best technical player" an ...

, Ronja Savolainen, and Noora Tulus on the SDHL team. 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 HV71 (), often referred to as just HV, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Jönköping, playing in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), the first tier of Swedish ice hockey. The team played in the 2008–09 Champions Hockey League ...

before the season was canceled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden The COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden is part of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , there have been confirmed cumulative cases and deaths with confirmed COVID-19 in Swed ...

. She was named the 2020 SDHL

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

and was a Forward of the Year Award finalist. 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 The 2020–21 SDHL season was the 14th season of the Swedish Women's Hockey League ( sv, Svenska damhockeyligan; SDHL). The season began on 12 September 2020 and concluded on 26 February 2021. All ten teams were able to complete a full 36-game r ...

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 Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

, where she notched five points (2+3) in five games. She scored seven goals and tallied seven assists for the Finland Selects at the 2015 World Selects Invitational in

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third la ...

. 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. She made her debut with the Finnish national team at the

2016 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2016 IIHF Women's World Championship was the 17th such event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was contested in Kamloops, Canada from 28 March to 4 April 2016. Venues included the Sandman Centre, and the McArthur Island S ...

, notching three points in six games as Finland finished in fourth. She has played for Finland in every World Championship since, scoring three goals in six games the

2017 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2017 IIHF Women's World Championship was an international Ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was held in Plymouth Township, Michigan, United States from 31 March to 7 April 2017. The USA Hockey Arena ser ...

, as Finland won bronze. She scored five points in six games for Finland at the

, 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 or won World Championship gold. However, after a twelve-minute video review, the goal was disallowed in a call that sparked intense controversy. She was one of the five Finnish players to then take a shot in the

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...

, which culminated in a victory for the United States.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nieminen, Petra 1999 births Living people Finnish women's ice hockey forwards Ice hockey people from Tampere Luleå HF/MSSK players Team Kuortane players Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Sweden Ice hockey players at the 2018 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2022 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic ice hockey players of Finland Olympic medalists in ice hockey Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics