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 | |||
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Born |
Lempäälä, Pirkanmaa, Finland | 30 March 1987||
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 |
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Playing career | 2001–present | ||
Medal record
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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 |
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
- "Athlete Profile: Jenni Hiirikoski, Ice Hockey". 2010 Winter Olympics. 2010. Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- Murphy, Mike; Foster, Meredith (14 October 2018). "Jenni Hiirikoski is the Best Defender in the World". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
- Oliver, Nathaniel (5 September 2018). "Jenni Hiirikoski Goes One-On-One & Shares Some Fun Facts". The Hockey Writers. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
- Podnieks, Andrew (1 January 2020). "Top women's hockey moments of the 2010s". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- ""När jag var ung ville jag också komma till NHL"". HockeySverige (in Swedish). 11 September 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- "Championnat de Russie de hockey sur glace féminin 2009/10". hockeyarchives.info (in French). Retrieved 9 August 2019.
- Lillhannus, Andreas (28 June 2016). "Världens bästa back klar för Luleå". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- https://www.theicegarden.com/2020/9/16/21437288/dam-good-jenni-hiirikoski-starts-off-scoring-sdhl-lulea
- Dahlén, Johanna (9 September 2019). ""En ära att sätta på mig tröjan varje år"". Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- Clinton, Jared. "The 10 best women's players of the decade". The Hockey News. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- Kågström, Rasmus (20 May 2020). "De kan prisas som säsongens back i SDHL". Hockeysverige (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- "Player Profile: Jenni Hiirikoski". eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
- "Overturned overtime goal helps United States beat Finland for gold". The Toronto Star. 14 April 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- Rönnkvist, Ronnie (20 January 2017). "De är världens bästa damspelare: "En Erik Karlsson-kopia"". Hockeysverige (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 August 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
External links
- Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or Eurohockey.com
- Jenni Hiirikoski at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)