Noora Raty officially retires from Finnish women’s national team

Noora Raty officially retires from Finnish women’s national team
Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

One of the best to ever do it has called it quits.

Noory Raty, considered to be one of the best women’s hockey goaltenders in the game’s history, announced her retirement from the Finnish national team on Instagram on Thursday.

Raty won six bronze medals with Finland between Olympic and World Championship competition and took silver at the 2019 worlds after helping her team beat Canada in the semifinal.

The 33-year-old goaltender was a shocking omission from Finland’s 2022 Olympic team, which also won bronze. Anni Keisala assumed the starting role, with the narrative at the time being that the full coaching staff elected to go with Keisala instead of Raty.

Raty alleged in her Instagram post that the decision was made solely by head coach Pasi Mustonen, and that the rest of the coaching staff preferred Raty.

“What helped me move on was for example a phone call I received, where I was told the truth and that other coaches except the head coach wanted to pick me to Beijing,” Räty wrote in the post, translated into English. “The claim that Anni (Keisala) was the choice of all coaches as the number one goalkeeper was also refuted. (@annikeisala you are a boss 😎💪🏻)! Moral of the matter: be honest. Always speak the truth, even if the truth is unpleasant.”

Raty currently plays with HPK in the Finnish women’s league after splitting last year between HPK and the KRS Vanke Rays in the Russian league. Among other accomplishments, Raty has the most wins (114), shutouts (43) and single-season wins (38) in NCAA women’s hockey history. She also has the most top goaltender awards ever at the World Championship with five and is the only woman goaltender to play in the second division of Finnish men’s hockey. Once she achieves Hall of Fame eligibility, it won’t be long before she gets a call.

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