According to Wikipedia, in the town centre of Sayneinen, a small community about an hour from Kuopio, there’s a “local history museum, sports field, a hockey rink, a chemist, a church, a youth club house, and an outdoor theatre.”
With all due respect to the museum and the church, as well as the chemist and the youth club, the heart of the town is the hockey rink, especially if you ask Tanja Niskanen.
“My big brother played hockey, so I followed him onto the outdoor ice and then joined the local team when I was around ten,” she says.
She had the fire in her belly, says her father, Ari.
“You couldn’t stop her. First we hit the outdoor rink, then to a bigger club close by and then to KalPa Kuopio’s women’s team. It’s been a journey, we’ve taken many road trips and seen ups and downs, Ari Niskanen told Finnish Yle after the 2018 Olympic tournament.
At 15, Niskanen jumped from the boys’ team to a women’s team that played in Division 1. The tall then-17-year-old center scored 26 goals in eleven games (and added three assists).
“It was a smooth transition,” Niskanen says.
Today, ten years later, Niskanen is an Olympic bronze medallist and a two-time World Championship bronze medallist.
Despite her impressive resume, Niskanen’s career hasn’t been a linear rise to the top, even if she was on the under-18 national team for three years, made her women’s national team debut at 17 and played on both national teams in 2008/09 and 2009/10. In 2011, she was on the World Championship bronze medal team.
“Making Team Finland was always my goal and since I played on the under-18 team, it also seemed realistic,” she says.
Five years ago, Niskanen lost the spark. Hockey wasn’t fun anymore, not the way it had always been. She couldn’t get motivated to practise and while she had played 15 national team games in 2013/14, she only played 17 club team games the following season, and ten of those were in the second-tier Mestis after a short hiatus.
“I needed a change. I’ve played [for KalPa] nine years already, I think. My motivation was gone,” Niskanen told Yle in January 2015 when she made her comeback with Luistin Lapinlahti, a team of players who had won everything in ringette and had started fresh as hockey players.
Even Niskanen got her spark for hockey back. The following season she scored 28+24=52 points in 25 regular season games for JYP Jyvaskyla, adding another six goals in six playoff games, en route to a Finnish title. Niskanen was named Best forward in the Finnish league.
Niskanen was back. And anybody doubting her motivation only needed to see how she practiced with a JYP boys’ team during the weeks, then drove to Kuopio to play KalPa’s games during the weekend. Niskanen was doing her military service in Jyvaskyla but when JYP shut down their women’s team, she had to transfer back to KalPa.
With all due respect to the museum and the church, as well as the chemist and the youth club, the heart of the town is the hockey rink, especially if you ask Tanja Niskanen.
“My big brother played hockey, so I followed him onto the outdoor ice and then joined the local team when I was around ten,” she says.
She had the fire in her belly, says her father, Ari.
“You couldn’t stop her. First we hit the outdoor rink, then to a bigger club close by and then to KalPa Kuopio’s women’s team. It’s been a journey, we’ve taken many road trips and seen ups and downs, Ari Niskanen told Finnish Yle after the 2018 Olympic tournament.
At 15, Niskanen jumped from the boys’ team to a women’s team that played in Division 1. The tall then-17-year-old center scored 26 goals in eleven games (and added three assists).
“It was a smooth transition,” Niskanen says.
Today, ten years later, Niskanen is an Olympic bronze medallist and a two-time World Championship bronze medallist.
Despite her impressive resume, Niskanen’s career hasn’t been a linear rise to the top, even if she was on the under-18 national team for three years, made her women’s national team debut at 17 and played on both national teams in 2008/09 and 2009/10. In 2011, she was on the World Championship bronze medal team.
“Making Team Finland was always my goal and since I played on the under-18 team, it also seemed realistic,” she says.
Five years ago, Niskanen lost the spark. Hockey wasn’t fun anymore, not the way it had always been. She couldn’t get motivated to practise and while she had played 15 national team games in 2013/14, she only played 17 club team games the following season, and ten of those were in the second-tier Mestis after a short hiatus.
“I needed a change. I’ve played [for KalPa] nine years already, I think. My motivation was gone,” Niskanen told Yle in January 2015 when she made her comeback with Luistin Lapinlahti, a team of players who had won everything in ringette and had started fresh as hockey players.
Even Niskanen got her spark for hockey back. The following season she scored 28+24=52 points in 25 regular season games for JYP Jyvaskyla, adding another six goals in six playoff games, en route to a Finnish title. Niskanen was named Best forward in the Finnish league.
Niskanen was back. And anybody doubting her motivation only needed to see how she practiced with a JYP boys’ team during the weeks, then drove to Kuopio to play KalPa’s games during the weekend. Niskanen was doing her military service in Jyvaskyla but when JYP shut down their women’s team, she had to transfer back to KalPa.
Niskanen works for the Finnish Defence Forces, in the Air Force, but in the rink she’s in charge of KalPa’s offence. This season, the KalPa captain scored 24+40=64 points in 18 games in the preliminary round and 7+8=15 points in eleven games in the next round.
On the Finnish women’s national team, Niskanen has a different role.
“I’m used to the fact that I don’t score as often as in the Finnish league but I also like to think of myself as a solid two-way player,” she says.
“My work ethic is my biggest strength, and that’s something I take with me to the national team as well.”
Like most other players, Niskanen talks about the upcoming 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championships on a general level, until the tournament starts.
“I see this tournament as a great opportunity for women’s hockey in Finland, the way it comes right after the Olympic tournament. The Olympics is in a class of its own, but for us Finnish, a home-ice tournament ranks very high and my goal is to make the team,” she says.
She’s motivated.
On the Finnish women’s national team, Niskanen has a different role.
“I’m used to the fact that I don’t score as often as in the Finnish league but I also like to think of myself as a solid two-way player,” she says.
“My work ethic is my biggest strength, and that’s something I take with me to the national team as well.”
Like most other players, Niskanen talks about the upcoming 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championships on a general level, until the tournament starts.
“I see this tournament as a great opportunity for women’s hockey in Finland, the way it comes right after the Olympic tournament. The Olympics is in a class of its own, but for us Finnish, a home-ice tournament ranks very high and my goal is to make the team,” she says.
She’s motivated.