Susanna Tapani made Finnish hockey history the night before Thursday, when she was the first Finnish player to skate on the ice in North America’s new women’s professional hockey series, the PWHL.
Minnesota, represented by Tapan, defeated Boston 3–2 in front of more than 4,000 spectators.
– It was super great to be able to play with and against the best in the world. I enjoyed every shift. The atmosphere was incredible, there was a lot of noise. It’s quite rare that you get to experience something like this as a female hockey player, Tapani recently commented to Urheilu.
Minnesota and Boston were the last teams in the PWHL, which started on Monday, to open their season. Tapani admitted that the PWHL debut had been expected.
– It felt like there was one season in between when we just trained. This day has been awaited for a really long time. Osa has worked for many years for this, this is a great and big day for women’s ice hockey.
Tapani played in Minnesota’s second chain, and shot the hardest of his team, i.e. four times. He was still scoreless in his PWHL debut.
Minnesota led the match after the opening set 2–0 Taylor Heisen and Sophia Kunin with hits. Theresa Schafzahl narrowed the game to 1–2 in the second period, but Grace Zumwinkle took Minnesota to a 3–1 lead soon after the reduction.
Megan Keller brought Boston into the goal two and a half minutes before the final buzzer, but Boston’s streak ran out.
Minnesota’s next game is this weekend when they face Montreal in their home debut. The match will be played at the Minnesota NHL club’s home arena.
– The hall is bigger, it probably won’t be quite full, but I heard that tickets have been sold well, Tapani said.
New series
The new women’s professional league PWHL was founded last summer, when sports investment companies The Mark Walter Group and Billie Jean King Enterprises bought the North American women’s professional hockey league PHF. At the same time, the contracts of Finns who played in PHF expired.
There are six teams in the new series, three of which come from the USA and three from Canada.
The stars of the Canadian and USA national teams, i.e. the best players in the world, also play in the series.
Boston, Minnesota’s opening opponent, was captained by a legend of the sport, selected as the IIHF’s 2023 Player of the Year Hilary Knight, who led the USA to the world championship and scored a hat-trick in the Canadian net in the final.
– It’s really great to be able to experience this again, because it’s not a given that I’ll still be playing. It’s super cool to be able to play with the best in the world. Of course, it’s a plus that you still get paid for it, and you can’t even think about it when you’re enjoying playing just like before.
Tapani is the only Finn playing in the new league. Minnesota also booked a Finnish defender Minttu Tuominen, but he declined the invitation.
Serves as Minnesota’s assistant coach Mira Jalosuo.
– Unfortunately, no other Finns were included in the first season, but I believe that there will be more of them in the future. Maybe now that there is one here, the series will be followed more in Finland and little girls will be able to watch the series and dream of playing here, commented Tapani.
“Only the championship will do”
Tapani took a break from hockey last season to focus on his other sport, ringette. Before that, 30-year-old Tapani has played in the domestic Women’s League in Sweden, in the US University League and in the Russian League for the Chinese team KRS Vanke Rays.
Jalosuo, on the other hand, has enjoyed himself in Minnesota for years. He has coached high school and college teams for five years, but in the PWHL the framework is different.
– We also have 18 people in the team’s background team, which is really a lot compared to previous professional leagues. There used to be one full-time head coach and the others were essentially volunteers. After all, the resources here are fine, Jalosuo admitted.
The regular season of the PWHL continues until the beginning of May, and after that it’s time for the playoffs. The series is on hiatus in April during the Women’s World Cup.
According to Jalosuo, Minnesota’s goal for the debut season is clear.
– Of course we want to win the championship, we are not going to play from any place. Only the championship will do.
Tapan was interviewed by Heiko Oldoerp.