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 | 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 | ||
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 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | ||
| 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 | 32 | 13 | 14 | 27 | 22 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 | ||
| 2021–22 | Luleå/MSSK | SDHL | 36 | 17 | 22 | 39 | 4 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 0 | ||
| 2022–23 | Luleå/MSSK | SDHL | 32 | 23 | 18 | 41 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 0 | ||
| Naisten Liiga totals | 84 | 63 | 54 | 117 | 14 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 33 | 8 | ||||
| SDHL totals | 100 | 53 | 54 | 107 | 32 | 29 | 14 | 14 | 28 | 4 | ||||
International
| Year | Team | Event | Result | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Finland U18 | WW18 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2018 | Finland U18 | WW18 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | |
| 2019 | Finland U18 | WW18 |  | 6 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | |
| 2019 | Finland | WW |  | 7 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | |
| 2021 | Finland | WW | | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2022 | Finland | OG | | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | |
| 2022 | Finland | WW | 6th | 7 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | |
| 2023 | Finland | WW | 5th | 7 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 0 | |
| Junior totals | 14 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 2 | ||||
| Senior totals | 34 | 11 | 11 | 22 | 2 | ||||
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
External links
- Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or Eurohockey.com
- Viivi Vainikka at Olympedia
