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Matilda Nilsson

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Matilda Nilsson
Born (1997-03-02) 2 March 1997 (age 27)
Kirkkonummi, Finland[1]
Height 164 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Weight 60 kg (132 lb; 9 st 6 lb)
Position Wing
Shoots Left
Auroraliiga team
Former teams		 Ilves Tampere
National team  Finland
Playing career 2010–present
Medal record
World Championship
Bronze medal – third place 2021 Canada

Matilda Nilsson (born 2 March 1997) is a Finnish ice hockey player, a winger. She has played in the Auroraliiga with the Tampereen Ilves since September 2024. As a member of the Finnish national ice hockey team, she won a bronze medal at the 2021 IIHF Women's World Championship.

Playing career

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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 Salamat's boys' teams, she also joined the women's representative team of Keski-Uudenmaan Juniorikiekkoilun Tuki (KJT) in Kerava and made her senior league debut at age thirteen in the 2010–11 season of the Naisten Suomi-sarja, the third-tier women's national league in Finland. She played eleven games in the qualification series, contributing fifteen 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 KJT in the following season, she ranked third on the team for scoring across the regular season and qualifiers, with 23 points in twenty games. In the 2012–13 Naisten Mestis season, she recorded nearly 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 (called Naisten Liiga during 2017–2024; renamed Auroraliiga in 2024).

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 nineteen points Nilsson contributed across the ten game series. Before the 2014–15 Naisten SM-sarja season, seventeen year old Nilsson moved over 400 km (250 mi) away from home to sign with KalPa Naiset in Kuopio.

Nilsson began the 2022–23 season with the men's U17 squad of HC Salamat. She played one match with the team before signing in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) with Brynäs IF. Across 27 games with Brynäs in the 2022–23 SDHL season, she scored sixteen goals and twelve assists for 28 points. Her point total ranked fifth on the team and she tied with Maja Nylén Persson for third-most goals scored, behind only Lara Stalder and Anna Meixner.

She entered the 2023–24 SDHL season without a contract and did not play until October, when she signed with Frölunda HC to fill the gap left when the team's captain, Hanna Olsson, was sidelined by a season-ending hamstring injury.[3] She ranked fifth on the team for scoring, with seven goals and nine assists for sixteen points across 27 games.

International play

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Nilsson played with the Finnish national U18 team at the 2014 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship, where Finland placed fifth.[4]

At age sixteen, Nilsson was invited to join the senior national team but was committed to other interests at the time and choose not to pursue the opportunity.[2]

She represented Finland at the 2018 4 Nations Cup and at several Euro Hockey Tour tournaments in the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons.[5][6][7]

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 the COVID-19 pandemic.[8][9]

Personal life

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Nilsson was born on 2 March 1997 to a family of Swedish-Finns, a culturally distinct group of people born in Finland speaking Swedish as their first language. Her parents, Camilla and Toni, run Varuboden Areena [fi] in Kirkkonummi, the home venue of HC Salamat.[10] During Nilsson's youth, her father worked as a police officer.[11]

Hockey Hall of Fame-inductee Hayley Wickenheiser lived with the Nilsson family while playing with Salamat during the 2002–03 season and 2003–04 season. Nilsson recalled "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]

Nilsson is in a relationship with former footballer Nea Aho, who last 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 SDHL team but they altered course and chose to remain in Finland as the COVID-19 pandemic created uncertainty and other challenges.[12] They were able to realize their goal in 2022, when Nilsson signed in the SDHL, and resided in Sweden during the two seasons she was active in the league.

Nilsson and Aho moved back to Finland in August 2024, following Aho's acceptance into the Police University College (Polamk) in Hervanta, Turku. At that time, Nilsson shared that she had also applied to Polamk and, though she had not yet received the results of her entrance exam, she hoped to enroll and complete her schooling in Finland before she would consider playing ice hockey abroad again.[11][13][14]

Nilsson previously worked as a kindergarten classroom assistant in Kuopio and also considered pursuing a career in nursing.[12]

Career statistics

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Regular season and postseason

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    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
2022–23 Salamat U17 U17 Suomi-sarja 1 0 1 1 0 – – – – —
2022–23 Brynäs IF SDHL 27 16 12 28 8 8 4 2 6 4
2023–24 Frölunda HC SDHL 27 7 9 16 10 8 1 2 3 6
Auroraliiga totals 245 214 168 382 164 57 26 23 49 38
SDHL totals 54 23 21 44 18 16 5 4 9 10

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

Sources: Finnish Ice Hockey Association,[15] Elite Prospects[16]

International

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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 WC 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,[17] Hockey Canada[18]

Awards and honors

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Award Year
Auroraliiga
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
Finnish Championship Silver Medal 2022
SDHL
Swedish Championship Silver Medal 2023

References

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  1. ^ Aaltonen, Juha, ed. (November 2019). "Naisten SM-sarjan kenttäpelaajarekisteri 1982–2019". Jääkiekkokirja 2020: Suomen Jääkiekkoliiton ja Liigan Virallinen Kauijulkaisu 2019–2020 [Ice Hockey Book 2020: The Finnish Ice Hockey Association and Liiga Official Guide & Record Book, 2019-2020] (PDF) (in Finnish). Helsinki: Suomen Jääkiekkoliitto. p. 544. ISSN 0784-3321. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Hyyppä, Emma (23 October 2023). "Matilda Nilsson siirtyy Ruotsin kiekkoliigan Frölundaan". Yle Urheilu (in Finnish). Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  4. ^ "Player Profile: Matilda Nilsson". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  5. ^ "Euro Hockey Tour 23.-25.8.2018, CZE: Kokoonpanot". tilastopalvelu.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  6. ^ "Women's Ice Hockey Rosters: Finland, 2018 4 Nations Cup". Hockey Canada. 2018. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  7. ^ Mennander, Pasi (27 January 2020). "Naisleijonat Euro Hockey Tourin finaaliturnaukseen tällä joukkueella". leijonat.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Steiss, Adam (7 March 2020). "Women's Worlds cancelled". IIHF. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  10. ^ "HIFK ja KalPa taistelevat sarjapisteistä - Matilda Nilsson odottaa Kirkkonummelle pääsyä". Kirkkonummen Sanomat [fi] (in Finnish). 17 September 2019. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  11. ^ a b Teiskonlahti, Riku (7 September 2024). "Ilveksen tähti pelkäsi lapsena isänsä puolesta – aamuisin lausuttiin neljä huojentavaa sanaa". Aamulehti (in Finnish). Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  12. ^ a b 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.
  13. ^ Forsberg, Paavo (27 August 2024). "Poliisiksi aikova Matilda Nilsson palaa Suomeen – tavoittelee mestaruutta Ilveksen riveissä". Yle Urheilu (in Finnish). Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  14. ^ "Poliisikouluvalmennus sopii myös ammattiurheilijan arkeen". Poliisikouluvalmennus (in Finnish). February 2024. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  15. ^ "Pelaajakortti: Matilda Nilsson". Finnish Ice Hockey Association (in Finnish). Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  16. ^ "Player Profile: Matilda Nilsson". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  17. ^ "IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship – Player Statistics by Team: FIN - Finland" (PDF). International Ice Hockey Federation. 29 March 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  18. ^ "2018 4 Nations Cup – Player Statistics". Hockey Canada. 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
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