Noora Räty is one of the few women to have played in men's senior competition in Finland. This season she's with third-tier team KJT, and she wants to play at an even higher level.
Unfortunately for her, she won't be showcasing her skills at the World Championships this month. That’s because of a long-running feud with the women’s national team coach Pasi Mustonen which came to a head last month.
She had told Mustonen that she was injured and couldn't go to Sweden for the European Hockey Tour, a four-team tournament including Finland, Sweden, Russia and Germany. After that, she said she recovered—and played for KJT instead.
Three criteria
Mustonen complained about that at the time, but now says the single episode was not the reason he left Räty out of his World Championship squad.
He says he has three criteria: ability, suitability for a certain role, and the player's effect on team spirit. Räty, he says, didn't fit into that framework.
Räty doesn’t buy that, and says her difficulties with Mustonen extend a little further.
"I believe it’s partly down to that," said Räty. "I can also blame myself as I didn’t handle it professionally. I don’t want to play for a team where the coach has told me to my face that he doesn’t value me as a player or as a person. Or what I’ve done for women’s hockey. He told me that last autumn during a meeting."
Bronze without Räty
Mustonen, for his part, reminds his critics that Finland won the bronze medal last year without Räty. He feels confident that his team is best off without the woman who is widely regarded as the best goaltender in the world.
Räty has a long history of changing perceptions of women in hockey. She's won a string of personal awards with her college team, Minnesota Golden Gophers, and been named MVP at the 2008 IIHF World Championship. She says she’s concentrating on club hockey for now.
"It doesn’t matter, now I focus on the Suomi-sarja play-offs," said Räty. "Next season I’ll have to try for SM Liiga (Finland’s highest level league) if that’ll be enough for the national team."
