Krista Parkkonen (born 25 June 2002) is a Finnish

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player for Minnesota Duluth of the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

and member of the Finnish national team.

Playing career

Parkkonen first played ice hockey at age 4 or 5, participating in a youth hockey school in her hometown of

Lappeenranta Lappeenranta (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of South Karelia. It is located in the southeastern interior of the country and in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lappeenranta is approximately , while the Lappeenranta sub-r ...

, a city in

South Karelia South Karelia (or ''Southern Karelia'', ; ) is a Regions of Finland, region of Finland. It borders the regions of Kymenlaakso, Southern Savonia, South Savo and North Karelia, as well as Russia (Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast). Hist ...

situated from the Russian border. She played on girls' teams for a few years. Early on, she set her sights on playing for the national team and having a college ice hockey career in the United States, which prompted her to switch to playing with the boys' teams for her age group in the

minor ice hockey Minor ice hockey or minor hockey is an umbrella term for amateur ice hockey which is played below the junior age level. Players are classified by age, with each age group playing in its own league. The rules, especially as it relates to body c ...

department of

SaiPa SAIPA (, ''SAIPA'') is an Iranian automaker headquartered in Tehran. The SAIPAC (an acronym for the French ''Société anonyme iranienne de production des automobiles Citroën'' lit. ''Iranian Limited Company for the Production of Citroën Autom ...

. At age fifteen, she made her debut with SaiPa Naiset, SaiPa's representative women's team in the third-tier

Naisten Suomi-sarja The Naisten Suomi-sarja (), distinguished as the Jääkiekon naisten Suomi-sarja (), is the third-tier women's national ice hockey league in Finland. It was established by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2003 and is the lowest tier of natio ...

but, as the women's team was not very competitive, she continued to spend most of her time playing on the boys' junior teams. At age seventeen, Parkkonen was recruited to play for IFK Helsinki (HIFK) by the team's general manager and head coach, Saara Niemi. HIFK had gained promotion to the Naisten Liiga (NSML), the premier women's league in Finland, at the end of the previous season and Parkkonen was one of several stand-out players brought in to bolster the ranks. She saw great success in her first Naisten Liiga season, leading all HIFK defenders in scoring with five goals and sixteen assists for 21 points in 28 games, and was recognized with the

Noora Räty Award The Noora Räty Award () is an ice hockey trophy awarded to the Rookie of the Year of the Naisten Liiga (ice hockey), Naisten Liiga (previously the Naisten SM-sarja), as selected by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. Rookie of the Year was first ...

as Naisten Liiga Rookie of the Year. A staple of HIFK's blue line during the following two seasons, she earned second team Naisten Liiga All-Star selections in both the 2020–21 season and 2021–22 season.

College

In Autumn 2022, Parkkonen began her

college ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the go ...

career with the

Vermont Catamounts women's ice hockey The Vermont Catamounts women's ice hockey program represents the University of Vermont. The Catamounts compete in Hockey East. Their first year of varsity women's hockey was in 1998–99. The Catamounts were in the ECAC at the Division III level ...

program in the

Hockey East The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...

(HEA)

conference A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

of the NCAA Division I. She was selected as an Hockey East Second-Team All-Star for the 2023–24 season. Parkkonen and her Catamounts teammate Natálie Mlýnková left Vermont to join the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college athletics, college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 21 (9 men's, 12 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and com ...

women's ice hockey program ahead of the 2024–25 season. After one season with Minnesota, Parkkonen transferred to Minnesota Duluth.

International play

As a

junior ice hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from ...

player with the Finnish national under-18 team, Parkkonen participated in the IIHF U18 Women's World Championships in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

. She made her debut with the senior national team at the

2022 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2022 IIHF Women's World Championship was an international ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) which was contested in Herning and Frederikshavn, Denmark, from 25 August to 4 September 2022, at th ...

, at which she scored a goal and two assists in seven games. Representing Finland at subsequent

IIHF Women's World Championships The IIHF Women's World Championship is the premier international women's tournament in ice hockey. It is governed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The official world competition was first held in 1990, with four more champions ...

, she notched three assists at the 2023 tournament and won a bronze medal in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. Parkkonen was named to

The Hockey News ''The Hockey News'' (''THN'') is a Canadian-based ice hockey magazine. ''The Hockey News'' was founded in 1947 by Ken McKenzie and Will Cote and has since become the most recognized hockey publication in North America. The magazine has a reader ...

' Top-35 U-23 Players in Women's Hockey in September 2022.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parkkonen, Krista 2002 births Living people Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Finnish women's ice hockey defencemen HIFK Naiset players Ice hockey people from Lappeenranta Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey players Naisten Liiga All-Stars Vermont Catamounts women's ice hockey players 21st-century Finnish sportswomen