Jenni Hiirikoski

Jenni Hiirikoski (born 30 March 1987) is a Finnish ice hockey player who serves as captain of Luleå HF/MSSK in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (Swedish: Svenska damhockeyligan; SDHL) and of the Finnish national team.[1]

Jenni Hiirikoski
Born (1987-03-30) 30 March 1987
Lempäälä, Pirkanmaa, Finland
Height 1.62 m (5 ft 4 in)
Weight 62 kg (137 lb; 9 st 11 lb)
Position Defence
Shoots Left
SDHL team
Former teams		 Luleå HF/MSSK
Tampereen Ilves
Espoo Blues
SKIF Nizhny Novgorod
JYP Jyväskylä
National team  Finland
Playing career 2001–present
Medal record
Women's ice hockey
Representing  Finland
Olympic Games
2018 PyeongchangTeam
2010 VancouverTeam
World Championships
2019 Finland
2017 United States
2015 Sweden
2011 Switzerland
2009 Finland
2008 China
2004 Canada

She is widely considered one of the best ice hockey defenders in history, having won the IIHF Directorate Best Defenceman award seven times during the 2010s.[2][3][4] She is currently the third all-time leading scorer among SDHL defenders and the third all-time leading scorer for Luleå, winning two SDHL championships with the club, has been named SDHL Defender of the Year twice, and is one of only two players to have been named top Olympic defender twice.[5]

Playing career

Hiirikoski's grew up in Lempäälä, Finland, and played youth ice hockey with the local club Lempäälän Kisa (LeKi).

She began her premier league career in 2001, at age 14, with the Tampereen Ilves Naiset of the Naisten SM-sarja (renamed Naisten Liiga in 2017). With Ilves, she won the Finnish Championship in 2006 and Finnish Championship silver (runner-up) medals in 2004 and 2005.

After achieving Finnish Championship gold with Ilves, Hiirikoski joined the 2006–07 Espoo Blues which had a roster overflowing with talent; in addition to Hiirikoski the team included Karoliina Rantamäki, Noora Räty, Emma Terho, Marjo Voutilainen and other all-stars of the Finnish national team. With so much accumulated skill, it was no surprise when the Espoo Blues claimed the Finnish Champions in 2007.

Hiirikoski returned to Ilves for the 2007–08 season and won her third Finnish Championship silver medal with them in 2008.

For the 2008–09 season Hiirikoski joined her first club outside of Finland, signing with SKIF Nizhny Novgorod in the Russian Women's Hockey League (reorganized as the Zhenskaya Hockey League (ZhHL) in 2015). The roster included two other Finns, her teammates from the Espoo Blues Karoliina Rantamäki and Marjo Voutilainen. The team was dominant and won both the Russian Championship[6] and the 2009 IIHF European Women's Champions Cup.

In June 2016, she announced that she was moving to Sweden to sign with SDHL club Luleå HF/MSSK as they would attempt to defend their SDHL championship.[7] She scored 45 points in 36 games in her debut SDHL season, the league's leading scorer among defenders and fourth overall, serving as an assistant captain for the team. She added another 4 points in 4 playoff games as Luleå were eliminated in the playoff semi-finals by HV71.

She was named Luleå captain ahead of the 2017–18 season.

After going without a point in her first twelve games of the 2019–20 season, despite leading the league in shots during that period, she finished the season with 40 points in 34 games. Luleå would make it to the playoff finals before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden.[8]

She was nominated for Luleå resident of the year in 2019.[9] She was named the eighth best women's hockey player of the decade by The Hockey News in December 2019, with the magazine stating that it was possible to "make a case that she’s been the most criminally underrated player of the decade and maybe in women’s hockey history."[10] Both she and Ronja Savolainen were nominated for the 2019–20 SDHL Best Defender Award, the award eventually going to Sidney Morin of HV71.[11]

International career

Representing Finland she has won two Olympic bronze medals, one at the 2010 Winter Olympics and one at the 2018 Winter Olympics; she also competed with the Finnish national team in the tournament at the 2014 Winter Olympics where Finland placed fifth. Hiirikoski has competed in eleven IIHF World Women's Championships and she won a silver medal at the 2018 Championship and bronze medals at the tournaments in 2004, 2008, 2009, 2015, and 2017.[12]

She was involved in the controversial no-goal call at the goal-medal game of the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship which cost Finland the victory, the goal being waved off because she made contact with American goaltender Alex Rigsby Cavallini outside of the crease.[13]

Style of play

Despite her smaller sature for a defender, she is noted for her speed, on-ice awareness, and her passing abilities, drawing comparisons to Erik Karlsson.[14]

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs
    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2001–02 Ilves Tampere SM-sarja 8 2 2 4 2 8 0 2 2 14
2002–03 Ilves Tampere SM-sarja 23 6 3 9 6 6 3 0 3 2
2003–04 Ilves Tampere SM-sarja 24 6 11 17 14 7 1 3 4 2
2004–05 Ilves Tampere SM-sarja 20 3 17 20 10 5 2 0 2 0
2005–06 Ilves Tampere SM-sarja 15 0 7 7 18 7 2 0 2 14
2006–07 Espoo Blues SM-sarja 22 8 16 24 20 7 1 3 4 2
2007–08 Ilves Tampere SM-sarja 19 8 21 29 12 8 2 6 8 6
2008–09 SKIF Nizhny Novgorod RWHL
2009–10 Ilves Tampere SM-sarja 19 4 39 43 6 11 4 7 11 4
2010–11 JYP Jyväskylä SM-sarja 18 4 12 16 28 3 0 0 0 0
2011–12 SKIF Nizhny Novgorod RWHL
2011–12 JYP Jyväskylä SM-sarja 8 3 12 15 4 – – – – –
2012–13 JYP Jyväskylä SM-sarja 28 19 18 37 12 8 2 6 8 10
2013–14 JYP Jyväskylä SM-sarja 25 20 26 46 12 8 3 8 11 4
2014–15 JYP Jyväskylä SM-sarja 28 18 43 61 10 7 1 7 8 4
2015–16 JYP Jyväskylä SM-sarja 28 17 62 79 8 6 3 9 12 2
2016–17 Luleå HF/MSSK SDHL 36 12 33 45 28 4 2 2 4 4
2017–18 Luleå HF/MSSK SDHL 36 22 33 55 18 7 1 3 4 0
2018–19 Luleå HF/MSSK SDHL 34 19 44 63 36 11 4 10 14 4
2019–20 Luleå HF/MSSK SDHL 34 12 28 40 20 6 1 4 5 2
Naisten SM-sarja totals 285 118 289 407 162 91 24 51 75 64
SDHL totals 154 68 155 223 110 28 8 19 27 10

International
Year Team Event Result   GP G A Pts PIM
2004 Finland WC 5 0 0 0 0
2005 Finland WC 4th 5 1 0 1 4
2007 Finland WC 4th 5 0 1 1 8
2008 Finland WC 5 1 2 3 4
2009 Finland WC 5 1 2 3 2
2010 Finland OG 5 0 2 2 4
2011 Finland WC 6 0 2 2 2
2012 Finland WC 4th 6 0 5 5 2
2013 Finland WC 4th 6 0 1 1 2
2014 Finland OG 5th 6 3 2 5 2
2015 Finland WC 6 2 2 4 4
2016 Finland WC 4th 6 1 3 4 2
2017 Finland WC 6 3 2 5 2
2018 Finland OG 6 0 2 2 2
2019 Finland WC 7 2 8 10 0
2020 Finland WC – canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic
Senior totals 85 14 34 48 40

[15][16][17][18][19]

Honors and achievements
Award / Honour Year
Naisten SM-sarja
Aurora Borealis Cup champion 2006, 2007, 2010, 2016
Naisten SM-sarja First All-Star Team 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
Päivi Halonen Award 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
Riikka Nieminen Award 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
Marianne Ihalainen Award 2016
SDHL
SDHL Champion 2018, 2019
SDHL Defenseman of the Year 2018, 2019
SDHL Playoffs MVP 2018, 2019
International
World Championship Bronze Medal 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017
World Championship Top 3 Player on Team 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019
World Championship Best Defenceman 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019
Olympic Bronze Medal 2010, 2018
Olympic All-Star Team 2014, 2018
Olympic Best Defenceman 2014, 2018
World Championship All-Star Team 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019
World Championship Silver Medal 2019
World Championship MVP 2019
Other awards
European Women's Champions Cup Best Defenceman 2009

References
  1. "Athlete Profile: Jenni Hiirikoski, Ice Hockey". 2010 Winter Olympics. 2010. Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  2. Murphy, Mike; Foster, Meredith (14 October 2018). "Jenni Hiirikoski is the Best Defender in the World". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  3. Oliver, Nathaniel (5 September 2018). "Jenni Hiirikoski Goes One-On-One & Shares Some Fun Facts". The Hockey Writers. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  4. Podnieks, Andrew (1 January 2020). "Top women's hockey moments of the 2010s". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  5. ""När jag var ung ville jag också komma till NHL"". HockeySverige (in Swedish). 11 September 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  6. "Championnat de Russie de hockey sur glace féminin 2009/10". hockeyarchives.info (in French). Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  7. Lillhannus, Andreas (28 June 2016). "Världens bästa back klar för Luleå". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  8. https://www.theicegarden.com/2020/9/16/21437288/dam-good-jenni-hiirikoski-starts-off-scoring-sdhl-lulea
  9. Dahlén, Johanna (9 September 2019). ""En ära att sätta på mig tröjan varje år"". Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  10. Clinton, Jared. "The 10 best women's players of the decade". The Hockey News. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  11. Kågström, Rasmus (20 May 2020). "De kan prisas som säsongens back i SDHL". Hockeysverige (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  12. "Player Profile: Jenni Hiirikoski". eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  13. "Overturned overtime goal helps United States beat Finland for gold". The Toronto Star. 14 April 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  14. Rönnkvist, Ronnie (20 January 2017). "De är världens bästa damspelare: "En Erik Karlsson-kopia"". Hockeysverige (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 August 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.