Finnish women’s ice hockey pioneer Riikka Sallinen, 49, is the third Finnish player named to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Sallinen played in the Finnish national team for four decades.
Ended his hockey career in 2019 Riikka Sallinen has been named to the Hockey Hall of Fame. She is the first ever European female player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and the ninth female player overall.
Finnish players who played long NHL careers have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the past Jari Kurri and Teemu Selänne.
Sallinen, 49, who lives in Sweden and works as a physiotherapist, did not participate in the celebrations organized in Toronto. Sallinen told Urheilu that he decided to skip the event due to the corona situation.
– The hall of honor includes great players who I have followed and tried to be as good as them. There are some hall of fame players that I have played against. Now I am one of them. I am really grateful and taken that I was elected to the Hall of Fame, Sallinen said on the NHL’s website.
Sallinen played in the Finnish women’s national team for no less than four decades, starting with the 1989 European Championship. She won several World Cup medals and two Olympic bronze medals in Naisleijon.
Originally from Jyväskylä, Sallinen witnessed the global development of women’s ice hockey during her playing career. He led the Finnish team to bronze in both the first ever World Championships in 1990 and the first Olympic tournament in 1998. At the Nagano Olympics, he also won the points exchange.
– When I was little, I didn’t even know how to dream of the World Cup or the Olympics, because women’s ice hockey didn’t have them. Suddenly I was there, playing against the best in the world, Canada and the United States. It was great, Sallinen recalls.
Sallinen ended his career for the first time already in 2003, but returned to top sports ten years later.
At the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, Salli became the oldest Olympic hockey medalist of all time at the age of 44. A year later, Salline’s successful career culminated in the World Cup silver achieved at the World Cup home games in the spring of 2019.
Sallinen, who played 253 national matches, is the most effective player in the history of the women’s national team with 138+177=315 points.
The Hockey Hall of Fame also received additions to the Vancouver Canucks and the Swedish national team on Monday night About Henrik Sedin and About Daniel Sedin. A Swedish greatness was also selected for the gallery of honor Daniel AlfredssonCanadian goalkeeper Roberto Luongo and hockey influencer Herb Carnegiewhich was added to the gallery of honor posthumously.