Viivi Vainikka (born 23 December 2001) 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 member 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 ...

Playing career

Vainikka began playing hockey at the age of five. She made her debut 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 ...

, the top flight of Finnish women's hockey at the age of 15 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 ...

. Across four years with the team, she scored 129 points in 112 games. After scoring a career-best 52 points in 30 games in the 2018–19 season, including 28

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 ...

, she won the Emma Laaksonen Award for fair play. She left Finland to sign a two-year contract with Luleå HF/MSSK in Sweden ahead 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 ...

, joining the roster with the highest concentration of Finnish national team players in the world, Finland included. She scored twice in her first two SDHL games. In November 2020, along with four other Finnish national team and Luleå teammates, she was forced to miss several SDHL games while being quarantined under Finnish law after a national team camp where a player tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

International

Vainikka won silver with the Finnish national team at the 2019 Women's World Championship. She was officially named to the Finnish roster for the 2020 Women's World Championship on 4 March 2020, prior to the cancellation of the tournament

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 ...

(IIHF) on 7 March 2020 due to public health concerns surrounding the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

* * 2001 births Living people Finnish women's ice hockey forwards Sportspeople from Espoo Luleå HF/MSSK players Team Kuortane players Ice hockey players at the 2022 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey players of Finland Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic medalists in ice hockey Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics {{Finland-icehockey-player-stub