Eveliina Mäkinen (; born 12 April 1995) is a Finnish

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

and member of the Finnish national team, She plays in the Swiss

Women's League Women's League may refer to: Sports Association football * Bulgarian Women's League, top level league of women's football in Bulgaria * Danish Women's League, top-flight semi-professional football league in Denmark * Indian Women's League, top ...

(SWHL A/PFWL) with

EV Zug EV Zug is a professional men's ice hockey team from Zug, Switzerland. It is a member of the National League and plays its home games at the Bossard Arena. History EV Zug won its first championship in the 1997–98 season, and the second one in t ...

Playing career

Mäkinen was born in

Kiukainen Kiukainen () is a former municipality of Finland. It was consolidated with Eura on 1 January 2009. It is located in the Satakunta region. The municipality had a population of 3,408 (2003) and covered an area of 149.88 km2 of which 0.22& ...

and began playing ice hockey at the age of four. She started playing with her brother and learned the game at a local ice hockey rink. She played on boys

minor ice hockey Minor ice hockey or 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 c ...

teams until 2011 when she joined Team Oriflame Kuortane, the women's representative team of the

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

, in the Naisten SM-sarja (renamed Naisten Liiga in 2017). In the 2012–13 season, her second with Team Oriflame, she posted 3.02

goals against average Goals against average (GAA), also known as average goals against (AGA), is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on spo ...

and a .917

save percentage Save percentage (often known by such symbols as SV%, SVS%, SVP, PCT) is a statistic in various Goal (sports), goal-scoring sports that track Save (goaltender), saves as a statistic. In ice hockey and lacrosse and association football, it is a sta ...

. Mäkinen joined the

Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs women's ice hockey The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs women's ice hockey team plays for the University of Minnesota Duluth at the AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minnesota. The team is a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) and competes in the National C ...

program in January of the 2014–15 season. She saw action in just one game, as the Bulldogs' starting goaltender, Kayla Black, started 36 of 37 games that season. Rather than return to the NCAA, Mäkinen opted to remain in Finland for the 2015–16 season and played with

Ilves Naiset Tampereen Ilves Naiset () are an ice hockey team in the Auroraliiga. They are the representative women's team of the multi-sport club Ilves ry, Ilves, based in Tampere, and their home arena is the in Tampere's Tesoma district. Ilves is the on ...

. Between 2016 and 2018, she played as the starter for

Lukko Naiset Lukko/PaRa is an ice hockey team in the Naisten Mestis. They are based in Rauma, Finland, Rauma, a port city on the southwestern coast of Finland, and play at the Eurajoen jäähalli in Eurajoki. The team was formed in May 2024 via a cooperation ...

in the Naisten Liiga and played with Lukko U20 A in the men's U20 Suomi-sarja. She was recognized as Naisten SM-saija Goaltender of the Year in 2017. In May 2018, she announced that she was signing with

Linköping HC Linköping Hockey Club, often known by its Acronym, initials LHC, or Colloquialism, colloquially among its fans as Cluben, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Linköping, founded in 1976. The home arena of the team is Saab Arena (for ...

in Sweden, taking over the starting position from the retiring

Florence Schelling Florence Isabelle Schelling (born 9 March 1989) is a Swiss former professional ice hockey goaltender. She briefly served as general manager of SC Bern from 2020 to 2021. She was the first woman to be named GM of a professional men's team in the ...

. After two seasons with Linköping HC, she left the club to sign with

Leksands IF Leksands Idrottsförening is a Swedish professional ice hockey team from the town of Leksand in the region of Dalarna. The team plays in the top-tier league, Swedish Hockey League (SHL), after succeeding through the 2019 SHL qualifiers and thus ...

for the

2020–21 SDHL season The 2020–21 SDHL season was the 14th season of the Swedish Women's Hockey League (; 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 regular season. The season m ...

. In January 2021, she transferred to Brynäs IF and several months later signed a two-year contract with the club through the 2022–23 season. Mäkinen tended goal for the

Metropolitan Riveters The Metropolitan Riveters (originally the New York Riveters) were a professional women's ice hockey team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with home games at the American Dream Meadowlands ice rink. They were one of the four charter franc ...

of the

Premier Hockey Federation The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) was a women's professional ice hockey league in the United States and Canada that operated from March 2015 until June 2023. The league was established in 2015 as the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), com ...

(PHF) during the 2022–23 season.

International career

Mäkinen played with the Finland women's national under-18 team during the

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

, finishing a 2.77 goals against average and .905 save percentage. She made her debut on the senior

Finland women's national ice hockey team The Finnish women's national ice hockey team represents Finland at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women's World Championships, the Olympic Games, the Four Nations Cup, and other international-level w ...

in August 2013 with a 4–1 victory over

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. She split goaltending for that game with

Tiina Ranne Tiina Ranne (born 6 December 1994) is a Finnish ice hockey goaltender, currently playing with KalPa Kuopio of the Naisten Liiga and the Finnish national team. She previously played for Team Oriflame Kuortane, JYP Jyväskylä Naiset, and HPK ...

, who was also making her debut with the team. Mäkinen was chosen to play in the

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...

as the third goaltender, a selection that she said took her by surprise. She was again named to Finland's roster for the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

. She has represented Finland at the

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, and

2019 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship was an international Ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was contested in Espoo, Finland from 4 to 14 April 2019 at the Espoo Metro Areena. The United States won the ...

Personal life

On the question of hitting in women's hockey, she has stated that "right now it’s really hard for the refs to differentiate what ‘contact’ means. Maybe there could be room for changes in the rules to allow more body contact without it overtaking the game." She married former

Liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mesti ...

defenceman

Atte Mäkinen Atte Mäkinen (born May 17, 1995) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey defenceman. Mäkinen made his SM-liiga debut playing with Tappara Tappara (; Finnish language, Finnish for "Battle axe") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team p ...

in 2021.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Makinen, Eveliina 1995 births Living people Brynäs IF (women) players Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Switzerland Finnish women's ice hockey goaltenders Ice hockey people from Satakunta Ice hockey players at the 2014 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2018 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2022 Winter Olympics Ilves Naiset players Leksands IF (women) players Linköping HC (women) players Lukko Naiset players Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics Metropolitan Riveters players Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs women's ice hockey players Naisten Liiga All-Stars Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic ice hockey players for Finland Olympic medalists in ice hockey People from Eura Swiss Women's League players Team Kuortane players 21st-century Finnish sportswomen