Pasi Nielikäinen
Encyclopedia
Pasi Nielikäinen is professional ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 player currently contracted to Jokerit
Jokerit
Jokerit is an ice-hockey team from Helsinki, Finland, playing in the Finnish Elite League, SM-liiga. The team has won 6 league championships...

 in the Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 SM-liiga
SM-liiga
The SM-liiga is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. As of March 2008, it is ranked by the IIHF as the second strongest league in Europe. It was created in 1975 to replace the SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur league. The SM-liiga is not directly overseen by the Finnish Ice...

.

Playing career

Nielikäinen has played for numerous teams in the Finnish SM-liiga, these include Kärpät
Kärpät
Oulun Kärpät is an ice hockey team in the SM-liiga based in Oulu, Finland. Their logo features a stoat ; "kärpät" is Finnish for stoats or ermines. The team has won five league championships .-History:...

, HIFK
HIFK (ice hockey)
HIFK is an ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays at Helsinki Ice Hall. It was founded in 1897...

 and HPK
HPK
HPK is an ice hockey team in the SM-liiga. They play in Hämeenlinna, Finland at the Hämeenlinnan jäähalli. HPK was established in 1929. The full name of the club is HPK-Edustusjääkiekko Ry and the team is sometimes promoted as the "Hockey Playing Knights", with the logo representing a knight...

.

Nielikäinen also played one season in East Coast Hockey League for Miami Matadors
Miami Matadors
The Miami Matadors were an ice hockey team in the East Coast Hockey League. They played in Miami, Florida, USA at the Miami Arena for one season before folding. The Matadors franchise would resurface several years later as the Cincinnati Cyclones.-History:...

 and one season for British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 team Manchester Storm
Manchester Storm
The Manchester Storm were an ice hockey team from Manchester, England. The team formed in 1995, playing their home games at the then newly built Nynex Arena . Storm won the British Hockey League Division One in their first season, watched by an average crowd of 6,342...

.

Style of Play

Nielikäinen is not a usual Finnish hockey player when it comes to playing. Nielikäinen is known from serving as Enforcer for his team. Nielikäinen also is not shy to dropping gloves and scrapping on the ice.

Nielikäinen's most famous rivalries include the one with fellow SM-liiga player Sami Helenius
Sami Helenius
Sami "Helge" Helenius is a Finnish professional ice hockey defenceman currently in a dual player and coaching role with HC Keski Uusimaa of the Suomi-sarja.-Playing career:...

 and his single fight against NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

-toughguy Ryan Vandenbusche in 2005/06 season from which HIFK and Jokerit got fined 50.000 euros/team.

Off the Ice

Nielikäinen is married to former Finnish Beauty contestant Jenni Nielikäinen (née Anttila)
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