A highly touted netminder, Noronen joined the AHL's Rochester Americans in 1999-00 and was subsequently named the recipient of the Red Garrett Memorial Award as the AHL's Top Rookie and named to the AHL All-Rookie Team after finishing the season with a 33-13-4 record and a 2.18 goals against average. Coming off a strong rookie season, Noronen once again demonstrated his strong play in front of the Amerks net in 2000-01, being named to the AHL's Second All-Star Team, while sharing the Harry "Hap" Holmes Award along with Tom Askey for being the AHL's outstanding team goaltenders.

While starring with Rochester, the Buffalo Sabres brass recognized Noronen's strong play and gave him his first opportunity to showcase his talents at the NHL level during the 2000-01 season. Noronen played two games with the Sabres in 2000-01 and went on to play ten more games in 2001-02 while continuing to be the Rochester Americans workhorse in goal.

In 2002-03, Noronen played in a career high 19 games with the Sabres while spending the better part of his fourth season in Rochester. Coming off a career high 19 games in 2002-03, Noronen went on to split the goaltending duties in 2003-04 with Martin Biron. In his first full season with the club, Noronen finished with an 11-17-2 record before returning to Finland in 2004-05 following the NHL lock-out.

After a season back in Finland, Noronen returned to the Sabres in 2005-06 and saw limited action with the club before having his rights acquired by the Vancouver Canucks at the 2006 NHL trading deadline. After competing in only four games with the Cancuks throughout the 2005-06 season, Noronen signed as a free agent with Kazan of the Russian Super League.

On the international stage, Noronen is a three-time member of Finland's World Junior team (1997-1999) and was a member of its 2004 World Championship team in Prague, Czech Republic.