Viivi Vainikka

Viivi Vainikka (born 23 December 2001) is a Finnish ice hockey player and member of the Finnish national team, currently playing in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (Swedish: Svenska damhockeyligan; SDHL) with Luleå HF/MSSK.[1]

Viivi Vainikka
Born (2001-12-23) 23 December 2001
Espoo, Uusimaa, Finland
Height 1.66 m (5 ft 5 in)
Weight 67 kg (148 lb; 10 st 8 lb)
Position Left wing
Shoots Left
SDHL team
Former teams		 Luleå HF/MSSK
Team Kuortane
National team  Finland
Playing career 2016–present
Medal record
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place2022 BeijingIce hockey
World Championship
Silver medal – second place2019 Finland
Bronze medal – third place2021 Canada

Playing career

Vainikka began playing hockey at the age of five.[2] She made her debut in the Naisten Liiga, the top flight of Finnish women's hockey at the age of 15 with Team Kuortane. 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, 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, joining the roster with the highest concentration of Finnish national team players in the world, Finland included.[3] She scored twice in her first two SDHL games.[4] 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.[5]

International

Vainikka won silver with the Finnish national team at the 2019 Women's World Championship.[6][7] 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 (IIHF) on 7 March 2020 due to public health concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.[8][9]

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs
    Regular season   Playoffs
SeasonTeamLeague GPGAPtsPIM GPGAPtsPIM
2016–17 Team Kuortane Naisten SM-sarja 28 5 7 12 4 2 0 0 0 0
2017–18 Team Kuortane Naisten Liiga 24 9 15 24 2 8 4 7 11 0
2018–19 Team Kuortane Naisten Liiga 30 26 15 41 6 4 2 2 4 0
2019–20 Team Kuortane Naisten Liiga 30 28 24 52 6 8 12 6 18 8
2020–21 Luleå/MSSK SDHL 3213142722 94484
2021–22 Luleå/MSSK SDHL 361722394 125490
2022–23Luleå/MSSKSDHL 322318416 856110
Naisten Liiga totals 84635411714 201815338
SDHL totals 100535410732 291414284

International
YearTeamEventResult   GPGAPtsPIM
2017 Finland U18 WW18 5 3 0 0 0 0
2018 Finland U18 WW18 5 5 2 2 4 0
2019 Finland U18 WW18 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 6 2 4 6 2
2019 Finland WW 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 7 1 3 4 0
2021 Finland WW 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 7 1 0 1 0
2022 Finland OG 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 6 2 1 3 2
2022 Finland WW 6th 7 2 2 4 0
2023FinlandWW5th 755100
Junior totals 1446102
Senior totals 341111222

Sources: [10][11]

Awards and honors
Award Year
Naisten Liiga
Finnish Championship Bronze Medal 2018
Emma Laaksonen Award 2020
All-Star – Second Team 2020
Player of the Month January 2020
SDHL
Swedish Championship Gold Medal 2021, 2022
International
World U18 Championship Bronze Medal 2019
World Championship Silver Medal 2019
World Championship Bronze Medal 2021
Olympic Bronze Medal 2022

References
  1. Nilsson, Jonathan (12 September 2020). ""Hon är som en storasyster för mig"". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  2. Foster, Meredith (17 January 2020). "Q&A with Team Kuortane's Viivi Vainikka". The Ice Garden. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  3. Nilsson, Jonathan (12 September 2020). ""Hon är som en storasyster för mig"". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  4. Murphy, Mike (16 September 2020). "Dam Good: Lulea's Jenni Hiirikoski starts off scoring". The Ice Garden. Archived from the original on 17 November 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  5. Kågström, Rasmus (9 November 2020). "Luleåstjärnorna fast i Finland – satta i karantän". HockeySverige (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  6. "Naisleijonien MM-joukkue yhtä vaille valmis – Kisojen alkuun kymmenen päivää". leijonat.fi. 25 March 2019. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  7. "2019 IIHF Women's World Championship roster" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 April 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  8. Malmberg, Henna (4 March 2020). "Naisleijonien MM-joukkue valittu – Sukupolven vaihdos tuo MM-joukkueeseen seitsemän ensikertalaista". leijonat.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Archived from the original on 12 December 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  9. Steiss, Adam (7 March 2020). "Women's Worlds cancelled". IIHF. Archived from the original on 7 March 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  10. Podnieks, Andrew; Nordmark, Birger, eds. (2019). "Active Skaters, Women". IIHF Guide & Record Book 2020. Toronto: Moydart. p. 664. ISBN 9780986796470.
  11. "2023 IIHF Women's World Championship – Player Statistics by Team: FIN - Finland". International Ice Hockey Federation. 16 April 2023. Retrieved 16 April 2023.


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