International Ice Hockey Federation

Raty quits national team

Raty quits national team

Finnish goalie retires from international women’s hockey

Published 15.02.2014 18:24 GMT+4 | Author Martin Merk
Raty quits national team
Noora Raty makes a glove save at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Photo: Jeff Vinnick / HHOF-IIHF Images
Finnish goalkeeper Noora Raty announced her retirement from women’s hockey after the Olympics following her team’s 4-2 quarter-final loss to Sweden.

The Finnish women’s national team will lose arguably the best female goalkeeper the country has ever had.

“My playing ends here,” Raty told the Olympic News Service after the game. “I already decided before the tournament that this is my last international tournament.”

Next season the 24-year-old will be on a try-out with Kiekko-Vantaa of the second-tier men’s league in Finland, Mestis, and hopes to earn a professional contract.

“If I can play professional hockey I will keep playing,” said Raty. “But if I can’t earn any money from playing I might be done.”

Finland coach Mika Pieniniemi paid tribute to Raty’s outstanding career.

“She is the best goalkeeper ever to play for Finland,” he said. “If she stops playing I hope she will want to stay in coaching.”

Raty is considered one of the best female goalkeepers in the world and started to play for the women’s national team as a 15-year-old in the 2005 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship. Sochi 2014 is her third Olympic participation after a fourth-place finish in Turin 2006 and winning bronze in Vancouver 2010.

She also won three bronze medals (2008, 2009, 2011) in seven IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championships.

Finland will continue the Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament with a classification game against Germany.

 

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