Jenni Hiirikoski

Hiirikoski grew up in Lempäälä, Finland, and played youth ice hockey with the local club Lempäälän Kisa (LeKi). She began her premier league career in 2001, at age 14, with the Tampereen Ilves Naiset of the Naisten SM-sarja (renamed Naisten Liiga in 2017). With Ilves, she won the Finnish Championship in 2006 and the Finnish Championship silver (runner-up) medals in 2004 and 2005.

After achieving Finnish Championship gold with Ilves, Hiirikoski joined the 2006–07 Espoo Blues, which had a roster overflowing with talent; in addition to Hiirikoski, the team included Karoliina Rantamäki, Noora Räty, Emma Terho, Marjo Voutilainen and other all-stars of the Finnish national team. With so much accumulated skill, it was no surprise when Espoo Blues claimed the Finnish Championship in 2007.

Hiirikoski returned to Ilves for the 2007–08 season and won her third Finnish Championship silver medal with them in 2008.

For the 2008–09 season, Hiirikoski joined her first club outside of Finland, signing with SKIF Nizhny Novgorod in the Russian Women's Hockey League (replaced by the Zhenskaya Hockey League (ZhHL) in 2015). The roster included two other Finns, her teammates from the Espoo Blues Karoliina Rantamäki and Marjo Voutilainen. SKIF was dominant and won both the Russian Championship and the 2009 IIHF European Women's Champions Cup.^[6]

In June 2016, she announced that she was moving to Sweden to sign with Luleå HF/MSSK as the club prepared to defend their SDHL championship.^[7] She scored 45 points in 36 games in her debut SDHL season, the league's leading scorer among defenders and fourth overall, serving as an assistant captain for the team. She added another 4 points in four playoff games as Luleå was eliminated in the semi-finals by HV71.

She was named Luleå captain ahead of the 2017–18 season.

After going without a point in her first twelve games of the 2019–20 season, despite leading the league in shots, she finished the season with 40 points in 34 games. Luleå would make it to the playoff finals before the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden.^[8]

She was nominated for Luleå resident of the year in 2019.^[9] She was named the eighth best women's hockey player of the decade by The Hockey News in December 2019, with the magazine stating that it was possible to "make a case that she’s been the most criminally underrated player of the decade and maybe in women’s hockey history."^[10] Both she and Ronja Savolainen were nominated for the 2019–20 SDHL Best Defender Award, though the award ultimately went to Sidney Morin of HV71.^[11]

Hiirikoski's speed, on-ice awareness, and passing ability have drawing comparisons to Erik Karlsson at the height of his career.^[12]

Hiirikoski made her debut with the Finnish national team at age 17 in the 2004 IIHF Women's World Championship (her birthday coincided with the first day of the tournament) and has appeared in every major international tournament since. She has served as team captain continuously since the 2011–12 season.

Representing Finland, she has won three Olympic bronze medals: at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She also competed with the Finnish national team in the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, at which Finland placed fifth.

As of 2024^[update], Hiirikoski has participated in fifteen IIHF Women's World Championships, winning a silver medal at the tournament in 2019 and eight bronze medals, at the tournaments in 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2021, and 2024.

She was involved in the controversial no-goal call in overtime of the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship gold-medal game, which cost Finland the victory after the goal scored by Finland's Petra Nieminen was waved off because Hiirikoski had made contact with American goaltender Alex Cavallini outside of the crease.^[13]

On 2 January 2026, she was named to Finland's roster to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics.^[14]

Year	Team	Event	Result		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
2004	Finland	WC			5	0	0	0	0
2005	Finland	WC	4th		5	1	0	1	4
2007	Finland	WC	4th		5	0	1	1	8
2008	Finland	WC			5	1	2	3	4
2009	Finland	WC			5	1	2	3	2
2010	Finland	OG			5	0	2	2	4
2011	Finland	WC			6	0	2	2	2
2012	Finland	WC	4th		6	0	5	5	2
2013	Finland	WC	4th		6	0	1	1	2
2014	Finland	OG	5th		6	3	2	5	2
2015	Finland	WC			6	2	2	4	4
2016	Finland	WC	4th		6	1	3	4	2
2017	Finland	WC			6	3	2	5	2
2018	Finland	OG			6	0	2	2	2
2019	Finland	WC			7	2	8	10	0
2021	Finland	WC			7	0	3	3	0
2022	Finland	OG			7	0	5	5	4
2022	Finland	WC	6th		7	0	1	1	4
2023	Finland	WC	5th		7	3	8	11	2
2024	Finland	WC			7	1	5	6	4
					120	18	56	74	54

Sources:^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]}