Riikka Sallinen

Hanna-Riikka Sallinen (née Nieminen, previously Välilä; born 12 June 1973) is a Finnish retired ice hockey, bandy, rink bandy, and pesäpallo player, who currently serves as assistant coach to HV71 Dam in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL).[1] She is considered one of the greatest hockey players of all time and is one of the most highly decorated players to have ever competed in international women's ice hockey.[2][3]

Riikka Sallinen
Born	12 June 1973 Jyväskylä, Central Finland, Finland
Height	1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)
Weight	60 kg (132 lb; 9 st 6 lb)
Position	Forward
Shot	Right
Played for	HV71 Limhamn HK KalPa Kuopio Shakers Kerava DHC Lyss JYP Jyväskylä EVU Vantaa
National team	Finland
Playing career	1988–2019
Medal record Women's ice hockey Representing  Finland Olympic Games 2018 Pyeongchang Team 1998 Nagano Team World Championships 2019 Finland 2017 United States 2015 Sweden 1997 Canada 1994 United States 1992 Finland 1990 Canada IIHF European Women Championships 1995 Latvia 1993 Denmark 1989 West Germany

Sallinen played sixteen seasons with the Finnish national ice hockey team and earned two Olympic bronze medals, one World Championship silver and six bronze medals, and three European Championship gold medals. In 2007, Sallinen was one of the first two women inducted into the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame, along with defenceman Marianne Ihalainen. She was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame on 21 May 2010 in Cologne, Germany as part of the World Championship festivities; she was only the fourth woman and the first European woman to receive this honor.[4] She is currently the leading all-time European scorer in World Championships and Olympics.

Sallinen's bronze medal at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang made her the oldest player to ever win an Olympic medal in ice hockey, replacing her compatriot Teemu Selänne who set the record at the 2014 Winter Olympics after winning bronze in the men's ice hockey tournament at age 43. Sallinen was awarded the medal at age 44, twenty years after she first won an Olympic medal in the inaugural women's Olympic hockey tournament.[5]

Ice hockey playing career

Sallinen played eleven seasons in the Naisten SM-sarja and was a five time Finnish Champion, first in 1988–89 with Etelä-Vantaan Urheilijat (EVU), then in 1993–94 with the Keravan Shakers, and in 1996–97, 1997–98, and 2015–16 with JYP Jyväskylä Naiset. She scored 201 goals and notched 194 assists (395 points) in 135 regular season games, averaging 2.93 points per game across her Naisten SM-sarja career, and appeared in 41 Naisten SM-sarja playoff games, scoring 86 points, (36 goals and 50 assists).

In 2016, she joined HV71 in the SDHL. She would captain the team from 2017 to 2019, scoring a total of 119 points in 92 games. She was suspended for four games in the 2018-19 playoffs after bodychecking a Leksands IF player.[6]

She announced her retirement from competition in April 2019, at age 46, shortly after achieving silver at the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship.[2]

International ice hockey career

Sallinen represented Finland at three IIHF Women's European Championships, eight IIHF World Women's Championships, and four Olympics. Over her international career she would score 109 goals, 95 assists for 204 points while accumulating only 24 PIMs.[7]

She made her international debut at the 1989 Women's European Championship.[8] Leading all players in scoring at the 1994 IIHF Women's World Championship, she was named the tournament's Best Forward. After leading all players in scoring at the 1997 IIHF Women's World Championship, she became the first woman to named a top-3 forward in three consecutive World Championships.

In her first Olympics in 1998 she led the tournament in scoring, amassing 12 points (7 goals & 5 assists) in six games and leading the Finnish team to the bronze medal. Sallinen would also lead the Finnish national team to three European Championship titles and six IIHF World Women's Championship bronze medals and one silver.

In August 2013, the IIHF reported that she was attempting a comeback[9] and in December 2013, following several matches in the Naisten SM-sarja, she was selected for the Finnish women's team for the Sochi Olympics. She made the Finnish Olympic team again for the 2018 Olympics, helping Finland to a bronze medal.[5][10]

She scored 4 points in 7 games at the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship as Finland won their first silver medal in history. During the tournament, she averaged 19:58 time-on-ice, second on the team. The logo for the Championship, held in Finland, was designed by Michelle Karvinen in tribute to her career.

Personal life

Sallinen was born Hanna-Riikka Nieminen on 12 June 1973 in Jyväskylä, Central Finland. She was raised in a sports-oriented home, her father and two older brothers were also successful athletes. Her father, Eero, was a Finnish Champion pesäpallo player in the 1960s. Lasse Nieminen, Sallinen’s eldest brother, played nearly 500 games with JYP Jyväskylä in the Liiga and currently serves as assistant coach to the JYP U16 juniors team. Juha “Jussi” Nieminen, Sallinen’s second eldest brother, played twelve seasons in the Superpesis with Jyväskylän Kiri.[11]

Sallinen is a physical therapist by training and works in the public sector with disabled and permanently ill people, in addition to working with her husband in the family’s pain management and rehabilitation practice.[11]

Sallinen and former Liiga player Mika Välilä were married in 2002 and divorced in early 2018.[12] Their two sons, Emil Välilä (born 2003) and Elis Välilä (born 2005), play on the U18 and U16 teams of the Tappara ice hockey club respectively, the same junior organization in which their father developed.

Sallinen and osteopath Petteri Sallinen married in late 2018. They have a physical therapy practice in Sweden, in which each of them takes responsibility for one-half of patient care; Petteri focuses on alleviating patients’ pain and Riikka develops physical therapy regimens for rehabilitation. Petteri, a former film director, was previously married to actress and theater director Anu Hälvä; they divorced in early 2018, and have two children together.[13]

Ice hockey career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1988–89	EVU	SM-sarja		6	19	7	26	2		—	—	—	—	—
1989–90	JyP HT	I-div.		4	5	3	8	0		—	—	—	—	—
1991–92	JyP HT	I-div.		10	41	3	44	2		—	—	—	—	—
1992–93	SC Lyss	LKA		17	50	30	80	0		—	—	—	—	—
1993–94	Shakers	SM-sarja		21	73	56	129	8		5	11	11	22	4
1994–95	JyP HT	I-div.		8	35	13	48	25		—	—	—	—	—
1995–96	KalPa	SM-sarja		10	10	8	18	0		—	—	—	—	—
1996–97	JyP HT	SM-sarja		24	26	38	64	0		6	3	5	8	4
1997–98	JYP	SM-sarja		12	13	8	21	2		6	2	8	10	0
1999–2000	JYP	SM-sarja		2	1	0	1	0		—	—	—	—	—
2000–01	JyHC	SM-sarja		9	10	9	19	6		—	—	—	—	—
2001–02	JyHC	SM-sarja		13	10	12	22	2		2	1	1	2	2
2002–03	Limhamn HK	Div. 1		—	—	—	—	—		3	3	3	6	0
2003–2013	did not play
2013–14	JYP	SM-sarja		13	7	12	19	18		8	5	11	16	12
2014–15	JYP	SM-sarja		14	12	25	37	8		7	5	7	12	4
2015–16	JYP	SM-sarja		11	20	19	39	6		6	5	5	10	2
2016–17	HV71	SDHL		23	10	11	21	12		6	3	3	6	4
2016–17	IF Troja/Ljungby	Div. 1		1	2	3	5	0		—	—	—	—	—
2017–18	HV71	SDHL		36	15	32	47	24		2	1	1	2	2
2018–19	HV71	SDHL		33	14	37	51	8		4	1	1	2	25
SM-sarja totals				135	201	194	395	52		41	36	50	86	28
SDHL totals				92	39	80	119	44		12	5	5	10	31

International

Year	Team	Event	Result		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1989	Finland	EC			5	9	2	11	2
1990	Finland	WC			5	8	2	10	4
1992	Finland	WC			5	6	2	8	0
1993	Finland	EC			3	2	2	4	0
1994	Finland	WC			5	4	8	13	4
1995	Finland	EC			5	9	14	23	2
1997	Finland	WC			5	5	5	10	0
1998	Finland	OG			6	7	5	12	4
2002	Finland	OG	4th		5	0	3	3	2
2014	Finland	OG	5th		6	1	4	5	0
2015	Finland	WC			6	6	0	6	0
2016	Finland	WC	4th		6	1	5	6	0
2017	Finland	WC			6	1	2	3	2
2018	Finland	OG			6	4	1	5	0
2019	Finland	WC			7	0	4	4	8
Senior totals					81	63	59	123	28

Awards and honours

Finland Award Year Tiia Reima Award 1993–94 (73 goals) Marianne Ihalainen Award 1993–94 (129 points) 1996–97 (64 points) Suomen Jääkiekkoleijona Hockey Hall of Fame Finland 2007 Karoliina Rantamäki Award 2015–16 President's Trophy 2018[14] Number retired by JYP Jyväskylä 4 January 2020[15][16]

International Award Year IIHF Women's World Championship Best Forward 1990, 1994 IIHF Women's World Championship All-Star Team 1992, 1994, 1997 IIHF Hall of Fame 2010

References

Content in this article is translated from the existing Finnish Wikipedia article at fi:Riikka Sallinen; see its history for attribution.

1. Freijd, Johan (16 December 2019). "Riikka Sallinen ny assisterande tränare i HV71 Dam" [Riikka Sallinen new assistant coach to HV71 Dam] (in Swedish). HV71. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
2. Foster, Meredith (15 June 2019). "Team Finland legend Riikka Sallinen retires". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
3. Murphy, Mike (27 December 2019). "Making the case that Riikka Sallinen is the GOAT". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
4. "IIHF Hall of Fame inducts six new members". National Hockey League. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
5. "Winter Olympics: Finland beat OAR 3–2 to claim women's ice hockey bronze". BBC. 21 February 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
6. https://hockeysverige.se/2019/02/15/riikka-sallinen-stangs-av
7. "IIHF Hall welcomes five". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
8. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Riikka Nieminen-Välilä". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Full name: Hanna-Riikka Nieminen-Välilä
9. Risto Pakarinen (13 August 2013). "Välilä makes comeback". International Ice Hockey Federation. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
10. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Finland Ice Hockey at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2009.
11. Ikonen, Petteri (21 November 2019). "Peliuran jälkeen: Edes otteluiden seuraaminen ei ole enää sytyttänyt Riikka Salliselle paloa pelaamiseen". leijonat.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
12. Karhu, Ann-Christine (1 April 2019). "Riikka Sallinen antoi jääkiekolle toisen mahdollisuuden, mutta yksi asia olisi voinut jäädä kokematta – "Pelkäsin että elämä muuttuu pysyvästi"". Yle (in Finnish). Retrieved 25 September 2020.
13. Ylimutka, Leena (31 January 2019). "Avioero! Anu Hälvän ja Petteri Sallisen 22 vuoden pituinen liitto päättyi – ex-mies nai olympiatason jääkiekkoilijan". Iltalehti (in Finnish). Retrieved 25 September 2020.
14. Seppänen, Antti, ed. (5 February 2018). "Liiga palkitsi kauden 2017–18 parhaat – tässä palkittujen lista" [Liiga rewarded the best of the 2017-18 season- the list of award winners]. liiga.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 5 July 2019.
15. "JYP kunnioittaa Suomen menestyneimmän naisjääkiekkoilijan uraa: Riikka Sallisen pelinumero jäädytetään" [JYP honors the career of Finland's most successful women's ice hockey player: Riikka Sallinen's game number to be retired] (in Finnish). Yle. 6 November 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
16. Foster, Meredith (7 November 2019). "To The Rafters: JYP to retire Riikka Sallinen's number". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 20 December 2019.

External links

• Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or Eurohockey.com
• Hanna-Riikka VALILA at the International Olympic Committee