Mira Jalosuo

Mira Jalosuo (born 3 February 1989) is a Finnish ice hockey player and head coach for the St. Cloud State women's ice hockey team. She previously served as an assistant coach to the Minnesota Frost of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). As a member of the Finnish national team, she won a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games and five bronze medals at the IIHF Women's World Championship.

Jalosuo attended the University of Minnesota and played NCAA Division I ice hockey with the Minnesota Golden Gophers from 2009 until her graduation in 2013. She was one of the first European players to join the team and recorded 19 goals and 37 assists (56 points) during her collegiate career. In her post-collegiate and professional playing career, she played with SKIF Nizhny Novgorod of the Russian Women's Hockey League, Luleå HF/MSSK of the Swedish Riksserien, Oulun Kärpät of the Finnish Naisten Liiga, and the Minnesota Whitecaps.

Playing career When she was in fifth grade, she began playing organized hockey with the local club, Lieksan Hurtat, where, at the encouragement of her coaches and teammates, she played on both the girls' and boys' teams.

Motivated to further improve her game, she moved to Oulu at age fifteen and joined Oulun Kärpät of the Naisten SM-sarja (NSMs; renamed Naisten Liiga—NSML in 2017 and Auroraliiga in 2024). With Kärpät, she won Finnish Championship silver medals in 2006 and 2007, and bronze medals in 2005 and 2008 and was named to the SM-sarja All-Star Team in 2007 and 2008. Jalosuo served as team captain for the 2008–09 season.

During her time living in Oulu, Jalosuo also played with the Finnish senior national team, playing in four IIHF World Championship tournaments, including every championship game in 2008 and 2009.

When asked to reflect on this period, Jalosuo has said, “I would say that I was a very good locker room player who treated everyone fairly. On the ice I had a pretty good shot, and I was able to read the game well.”

Elite club play Jalouso played with SKIF Nizhny Novgorod of the Russian Women's Hockey League for the 2013–14 and 2014–15 seasons. She won the Russian Championship with the team in 2014. Her teammates from the Finnish national team, Karoliina Rantamäki and goaltenders Noora Räty and Meeri Räisänen, also played with SKIF for one or both of the seasons that Jalouso was with the team.

In the 2015–16 season, Jalouso played with Luleå HF in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL). She played only three regular season games with the team but managed to record two goals and five assists for seven points in that short span. With Luleå, she played in seven playoff games and contributed five points (3+2) to the team's Swedish Championship victory in 2016. Michelle Karvinen and Nora Tallus, teammates from the Finnish national team, also played with Luleå in that season.

Jalouso returned to the Twin Cities, her college stomping grounds, to play with the Minnesota Whitecaps for the 2016–17 and 2017–18 seasons. The Whitecaps were independent in those seasons and played the majority of their games against women's college squads.

The Whitecaps’ non-standard schedule allowed Jalouso to play some regular-season games with Oulun Kärpät, the team she had played with in Finland prior to her collegiate career, in the 2016–17 and 2017–18 seasons. She also played with Kärpät in the 2017 Finnish Championship and contributed ten points (5+5) in eight games, leading to the team's Aurora Borealis Cup victory. Her efforts earned her the Karoliina Rantamäki Award as the most valuable player of the Naisten SM-Liiga playoffs.

Coaching career Jalosuo began her coaching career while still an active player, joining both the Hamline Pipers women's ice hockey program of Hamline University and the ice hockey program at Wayzata High School in Plymouth, Minnesota as an assistant coach in 2015. She retained both positions for four seasons.

She was named head coach of the Stillwater Ponies girls' ice hockey team of Stillwater Area High School in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota in 2019. Across her three seasons with the team, the Ponies achieved a record of 64–20–4, boasted a penalty kill success rate of 89.3%, and claimed three consecutive conference championship titles. In addition to her head coaching duties with the Ponies, she also worked as an assistant coach with the Minnesota section of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) during the 2020–21 season.

Ahead of the 2022–23 season, she accepted an assistant coaching position with the St. Cloud State women's ice hockey program. Joining the staff of incoming head coach Brian Idalski, her primary focus was working with the team's defenders. In her first season with the team, the Huskies' penalty kill improved from a 77% mark to 86% season over season, and they led the NCAA and set a program record with 576 blocked shots.

Jalosuo served as an assistant coach for two seasons (2023–24 and 2024–25) with the Minnesota Frost in the PWHL, winning two Walter Cups. After Idalski was appointed the head coach of PWHL Vancouver, Jalosuo was appointed the new head coach for the St. Cloud State women's hockey program.

Personal life Jalosuo was born on 3 February 1989 to Aki-Pekka and Sirpa Jalosuo, and raised in Lieksa, a small town of less than 12,000 on the Finland–Russia border in the North Karelia region of Finland .

She holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Minnesota and a degree in forensic science from Hamline University.

Jalosuo and her wife, Emilee , were married in April 2016. Their first child was born in 2021. Emilee played semi-professional rugby with the Twin Cities Gemini.

She is the owner and president of the Minnesota Ice Cougars, a women's junior ice hockey club that she purchased in 2018.