Satu Kiipeli
Satu Kiipeli is a Finnish retired ice hockey defenseman and assistant coach of Oulun Kärpät in the Naisten [Liiga |Naisten Liiga]. During her career with the Finland women's national [ice hockey team|Finnish national team], she represented Finland in the Ice hockey at the [2006 Winter Olympics – Women's tournament|women's ice hockey tournament] at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and at the IIHF [Women's World Championships] in 2001 and 2005.
Playing career
Kiipeli's senior career began in the 1994–95 season of the Naisten SM-sarja with Oulun Kärpät Naiset. She played six seasons in Finland with Kärpät before relocating to the United States in 2000 to play with the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs women's ice hockey program in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association NCAA [Division I Women's Hockey conferences and teams|conference] of the NCAA Division I. With the Bulldogs, she won the NCAA [Women's Ice Hockey Tournament|NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Championship] in 2001 NCAA [National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Tournament|2001], 2002 [NCAA National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Tournament|2002], and 2003 NCAA [National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Tournament|2003].Following graduation from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2004, Kiipeli played the 2004–05 season with the Minnesota Whitecaps in the Western Women's Hockey League. In 2005, she moved back to Finland to begin her master's studies at the University of Jyväskylä and returned to playing in the Naisten SM-sarja, this time as captain of the women's team of Itä-Helsingin Kiekko. During the 2006–07 season, she served as player-coach for IHK, capping the season with a Finnish Championship bronze medal win.
In 2007, she left IHK to rejoin Oulun Kärpät and stayed with the team until her retirement from playing in 2015. With Kärpät she won the Aurora Borealis Cup in 2012 and a bronze medal in the 2013 IIHF European Women's Champions Cup.