Vanhatalo began playing ice hockey at age 25 in 2009, joining the powerhouse Espoo Blues Naiset in Finland’s top league, the Naisten SM-sarja, as their starting goaltender.[6] Her first ice hockey season was a resounding success, she recorded a magnificent .952 save percentage across ten games played in the regular season and backstopped the team to silver medals in the Finnish Championship and the 2010 European Women's Champions Cup. Her performance earned the Tuula Puputti Award in 2010, recognizing her as the Naisten SM-sarja Goaltender of the Year.
Unable to continue playing with SKIF due to restrictions placed by the RWHL on the number of import players per team, she opted to play the 2011–12 season in the Swiss Women's Hockey League A (SWHL A) with the ZSC Lions Frauen based in Zürich. Though she split the goal with Canadian-Swiss goaltender Vanessa Clavadetscher during the SWHL A season, she was the starting netminder for the EWHL Super Cup in 2012 and the 2012 European Women's Champions Cup, backstopping the team to silver medal finishes in both tournaments.
Vanhatalo did not play ice hockey in the 2012–13 regular season but she returned to the starting role with the ZSC Lions for the EWHL Super Cup in 2013, contributing a magnificent .970 save percentage and 0.79 GAA to the team’s first Super Cup victory. She was also the team’s starter for the 2013 European Women's Champions Cup, at which the Lions placed fourth.
During her stay in Quebec in 2006, she learned the French language. She is multi-lingual and speaks Finnish, Swedish, German, English and French.
In 2009, she obtained her MBA in marketing from the Helsinki School of Economics. Her thesis examined the motivations of companies when sponsoring women’s sports, using ringette as a case study.[10]
^Jetté, Claudia (23 December 2006). "hyvää päivää !". J'aime la ringuette (in French). Archived from the original on 19 March 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2022.