Matilda Nilsson

Matilda Nilsson (born 2 March 1997) is a Finnish ice hockey player, currently playing in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) with Frölunda HC Dam. As a member of the Finnish national ice hockey team, she won a bronze medal at the 2021 IIHF Women's World Championship.

Matilda Nilsson
Born (1997-03-02) 2 March 1997
Kirkkonummi, Finland[1]
Height 164 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Weight 60 kg (132 lb; 9 st 6 lb)
Position Wing
Shoots Left
SDHL team
Former teams		 Frölunda HC
National team  Finland
Playing career 2010–present
Medal record
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place2021 Canada

Playing career

Nilsson grew up in Kirkkonummi, a municipality in the western Greater Helsinki region, where she began playing ice hockey at age 5. Her youth club was HC Salamat and she played on boys’ teams throughout her childhood until age 16. Regarding the experience, she has said, "I am so grateful that I got to play in boys. The differences [from women's hockey] can be seen in the physicality and doggedness. A different kind of hockey intelligence came from the games."[2]

While playing with the Salamat boys’ teams, she also joined the women’s representative team of Keski-Uudenmaan Juniorikiekkoilun Tuki (KJT) in Kerava and made her senior debut at age 13, in the 2010–11 season of the Naisten Suomi-sarja, the third-tier women's league in Finland. She played 11 games in the qualification series, contributing 15 points (7 goals + 8 assists) as the team gained promotion to the second-tier Naisten I-divisioona (renamed Naisten Mestis in 2012).

Remaining with the club in the following season, she ranked third on the team for scoring across the regular season and qualifiers, with 23 points in 20 games. In the 2012–13 Mestis season, she nearly registered two points per game, with 44 points (26+19) in 23 games, ranking third of KJT players and fifth in the league overall. Nilsson’s performance, in addition to phenomenal seasons posted by many KJT players, most notably Noora Tulus (77 points), Tinja Haukijärvi (45 points), and Emmi Rakkolainen (41 points), helped the team gain promotion yet again, this time to the top-tier Naisten SM-sarja (renamed Naisten Liiga in 2017).

KJT struggled against the higher compete-level of the Naisten SM-sarja and finished the 2013–14 regular season at the bottom of the standings, with a goal differential of -134. Despite the challenges, several players had solid seasons, none more so than Nilsson who scored over a quarter of KJT’s goals and led the team in scoring, with 23 points in 27 games. KJT was able to save themselves from relegation in the qualifiers, thanks in part to the 19 points Nilsson contributed across the ten game series. Before the 2014–15 Naisten SM-sarja season, 17 year old Nilsson moved over 400 km (250 mi) away from home to sign with KalPa Naiset in Kuopio.

International play

Nilsson played with the Finnish national U18 team at the 2014 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship, where Finland placed fifth.[3]

At sixteen, Nilsson was invited to join the senior national team but was committed to other hobbies at the time and did not choose to pursue the opportunity.

She represented Finland at the 2018 4 Nations Cup and at several Euro Hockey Tour tournaments in the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons.[4][5][6]

Nilsson was officially named to the Finnish roster for the 2020 IIHF Women's World Championship on 4 March 2020, before the tournament was cancelled on 7 March 2020 due to public health concerns related to COVID-19.[7][8]

Personal life

Nilsson and her family are Swedish-Finns, a culturally distinct group of people born in Finland speaking Swedish as their first language.

While playing with Salamat Kirkkonumi during the 2002–03 and 2003–04 Mestis seasons, Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Hayley Wickenheiser lived with the Nilsson family. Nilsson recalls "following her everywhere" as a five year old, watching what Wickenheiser did at the rink and in the locker room and adopting those habits, some of which have stuck with Nilsson into her senior career. The two women continue to communicate on a regular basis and Nilsson describes Wickenheiser as having played a significant role in her career.[2]

Former NHLer Teemu Selänne, who was a partial owner of HC Salamat until 2006, is also a family friend of the Nilsson's and further inspired Nilsson to pursue hockey.[2]

Outside of hockey, Nilsson works as a classroom assistant at a kindergarten in Kuopio. She has plans to study nursing in the future.[9]

Nilsson is in a relationship with footballer Nea Aho, who most recently played with Kuopion Palloseura (KuPS) in the 2019 season of the Naisten Liiga (renamed Kansallinen Liiga in 2020). The couple planned to relocate to Sweden in the summer of 2020 so Nilsson could sign with a Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) team but they altered course and chose to remain in Finland as the COVID-19 pandemic created uncertainty and other challenges.[9]

Career statistics

Regular season and postseason
    Regular season   Postseason
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2010–11 KJT Naisten Suomi-sarja 3 0 2 2 0 11 7 8 15 6
2011–12 KJT Naisten 1-div. 9 11 4 15 2 11 5 3 8 2
2012–13 KJT Naisten Mestis 13 17 14 31 4 10 9 4 13 6
2013–14 KJT NSMs 27 13 10 23 16 10* 9* 10* 19* 4*
2014–15 KalPa NSMs 28 24 10 34 16 3 0 2 2 0
2015–16 KalPa NSMs 28 21 5 26 12 2 1 1 2 0
2016–17 KalPa NSMs 25 17 17 34 18 9 5 4 9 2
2017–18 KalPa NSML 27 21 18 39 20 4 1 1 2 4
2018–19 KalPa NSML 30 39 35 74 16 8 6 5 11 10
2019–20 KalPa NSML 29 23 31 54 34 8 5 2 7 4
2020–21 KalPa NSML 22 19 24 43 10 11 3 3 6 12
2021–22 HIFK NSML 29 37 18 55 22 12 5 5 10 6
2022–23Salamat U17U17 Suomi-sarja 10110 ––––—
2022–23Brynäs IFSDHL 271612288 84264
Naisten Liiga totals 245214168382164 5726234938

* Postseason results for the 2013–14 season are from the qualification series (Finnish: Karsintasarja) rather than the playoffs and are not calculated with playoff totals.

Sources: Finnish Ice Hockey Association,[10] Elite Prospects[11]

International
Year Team Event Result   GP G A Pts PIM
2014 Finland WW18 5th 5 2 3 5 0
2018 Finland 4NC 3rd 4 1 0 1 4
2021 Finland WW 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 2 0 0 0 0
Junior totals 5 2 3 5 0
Senior totals 6 1 0 1 4

Sources: IIHF,[12] Hockey Canada[13]

Awards and honors
Award Year
Naisten Liiga
First All-Star Team 2015, 2020, 2021
Second All-Star Team 2018, 2019, 2022
Player of the Month September 2019
Sari Fisk Award (Best plus/minus) 2020
Tiia Reima Award (Most goals) 2021, 2022

References
  1. "Naisten SM-sarjan kenttäpelaajarekisteri 1982–2019" (PDF). Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  2. Teiskonlahti, Kirsi (12 February 2019). "Naiskiekon Gretzkyn pelaaminen Suomessa oli yhdelle viisivuotiaalle jättipotti: Matilda Nilsson seurasi esikuvaansa aamusta iltaan ja haluaa tulevaisuudessa olla yhtä suuri tähti". Yle (in Finnish). Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  3. "Player Profile: Matilda Nilsson". eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  4. "Euro Hockey Tour 23.-25.8.2018, CZE: Kokoonpanot". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  5. "Women's Ice Hockey Rosters: Finland, 2018 4 Nations Cup". Hockey Canada. 2018. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  6. Mennander, Pasi (27 January 2020). "Naisleijonat Euro Hockey Tourin finaaliturnaukseen tällä joukkueella". leijonat.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  7. Malmberg, Henna (4 March 2020). "Naisleijonien MM-joukkue valittu – Sukupolven vaihdos tuo MM-joukkueeseen seitsemän ensikertalaista". leijonat.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  8. Steiss, Adam (7 March 2020). "Women's Worlds cancelled". IIHF. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  9. Sirkkiä-Jarva, Sari (27 September 2020). "Koronakevät murskasi lähes kaikki Matilda Nilssonin haaveet – savolaistunut suomenruotsalainen sisuuntui takaiskuista: "Olen päättänyt, että sinne minne haluan, sinne myös pääsen"". Yle (in Finnish). Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  10. "Pelaajakortti: Matilda Nilsson". leijonat.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  11. "Player Profile: Matilda Nilsson". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  12. "IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship – Player Statistics by Team: FIN - Finland" (PDF). stats.iihf.com. 29 March 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  13. "2018 4 Nations Cup – Player Statistics". Hockey Canada. 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
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