Vilma Vaattovaara

Vilma Vaattovaara
Born (1993-03-10) 10 March 1993 (age 31)
Kirkkonummi, Finland[1]
Height 1.71 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight 68 kg (150 lb; 10 st 10 lb)
Position Goaltender
Caught Left
Played for London Dragons C
Tampereen Ilves
New Hampshire Wildcats
HPK Hämeenlinna
Current NIHL coach Streatham Black Hawks
National team  Finland
Playing career 2008–2019
Coaching career 2021–present
Medal record
World Championship
Bronze medal – third place 2015 Sweden

Vilma Vaattovaara (born 10 March 1993) is a Finnish ice hockey coach and retired goaltender. She serves as goaltending coach with the Streatham Youth Ice Hockey Club, the youth affiliate of Streatham IHC. Her coaching oversight includes the Streatham Black Hawks in the Division II of the National Ice Hockey League (NIHL) in addition to the club's minor and junior teams.

As a member of the Finnish national team, she won a bronze medal at the 2015 IIHF Women's World Championship.[2]

Playing career

Vaattovaara played college ice hockey with the New Hampshire Wildcats women's ice hockey program in the Hockey East (HEA) conference of the NCAA Division I during 2012 to 2016, and with the London Dragons C of the British Universities Ice Hockey Association (BUIHA) in 2018–19.[1][3]

In her native Finland, she played in the Naisten Liiga with the Tampereen Ilves Naiset and HPK Kiekkonaiset, with whom she won the Aurora Borealis Cup in 2011; she recorded the league's best goals against average and save percentage in the 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2017–18 seasons.[4]

Personal life

Vaattovaara has a BSc in zoology/pre-veterinary medicine from the University of New Hampshire and is currently a veterinary student at the Royal Veterinary College of the University of London.

As of March 2022, she is the logistics head for the independently operated University of London Dragons organisation, which manages the various London Dragons ice hockey teams in the BUIHA.[5]

Her siblings also played ice hockey – her elder brother, Ville, was a goaltender in the Finnish junior leagues and her younger sister, Viivi, was a defenseman in the Naisten Liiga and played four years of NCAA hockey, one Division I season with the UConn Huskies and three Division III seasons with the Buffalo State Bengals.

References

  1. ^ a b "2015-16 Women's Ice Hockey Roster: 35 Vilma Vaattovaara". University of New Hampshire Athletics. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  2. ^ "2015 IIHF World Championship roster" (pdf). IIHF. 31 March 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  3. ^ "London Dragons 18-19 Rosters – Dragons C". BUIHA. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  4. ^ Foster, Meredith (3 December 2017). "Behind The Mask: Vilma Vaattovaara". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  5. ^ "University of London Dragons Ice Hockey > Organisation". London Dragons. Archived from the original on 15 March 2022. Retrieved 19 March 2022.


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