Liiga - A taste of the own medicine

HPK Hämeenlinna – Kärpät Oulu 0-1 (Playoff 0-2)

Once again the series between the first and the tenth placed team of regular season turned out to be closer than expected. Juuse Saros and Tomi Karhunen kept their goals clean for more than half of the game before Ivan Huml converted a feed from Mikko Niemilä to give Kärpät the lead. As Tomi Karhunen kept stopping everything that got shot in his direction and his teammates could not add more to the score, Kärpät returns home from Häeenlinna with a 2-0 series lead for Game 3 on Monday.

Lahti Pelicans – Tappara Tampere 2-1 OT (Playoff 1-1)

For 50 minutes the game was all about goalies trying to achieve their shutouts and the occasional penalty to Tappara players. That is why Lahti could build up a shot record of 24-8 over the first two periods. In the last period it was Tommi Paakkolanvaara who broke the tie at the 53:21 mark. While Jere Myllyniemi already dreamed of getting his shutout and the win for his Pelicans the favourites in this series from Tampere had an answer. 1:27 minutes after the goal for Lahti, Liiga’s top goalgetter Olli Palola used one of the rare penalties against Lahti and sent the game into overtime. 17 minutes into overtime it was Janne Ritamäki, who converted Ilkka Pikkarainen’s second assist of the day to tie the series and change the momentum.

Espoo Blues – Lukko Rauma 2-3 (Playoff 1-1)

Remember what happened in Game 1? Lukko took an early 2 goal lead and blew it later on to give Espoo the series lead. Apparently Espoo did not pay attention to the concept. 15 minutes were played when Daniel Widing and Miro Aaltonen had established a 2 goal lead for the Blues and this time Lukko saw that as an invitation to give Espoo a taste of its own medicine. From the moment Jerry Ahtola scored after 17:48 minutes and cut the lead in half Lukko was planning to take over the game. But they should need some patience. Only with ten minutes to go Petteri Nummelin should get the equalizer for Rauma. And 4 minutes later it was Steven Zalewski with his second point of the game, who decided this match. Lukko wins 3-2 on the road to tie the series. 

JYP Jyväskylä – SaiPa Lappeenranta 3-4 OT (Playoff 0-2)

SaiPa came out of the lockers looking for an early decision in this series. And it was the top line again that wanted to force it. 87 seconds into the game Patrick Davis scored from Stefano Giliato and David Spina. When 9 minutes later Janne Tavi also scored short-handed it really did not look good for JYP. But JYP won the European Trophy for a reason. 63 seconds after the short-hander Miika Lahti could get the first goal of the day for Jyväskylä. And 7 minutes into the second period they had already turned the game around. Anssi Löfmann on the power-play and Mikko Salmio short-handed as well. However the game had one more plot changer to offer. And who else than SaiPa’s top line should be responsible for it. This time they didn’t score themselves, but Giliati and Davis set up defenseman Simon Backman, who forced the overtime. And this effort was not wasted, because 11 minutes into overtime Jesse Mankinen scored the game-winner for SaiPa, which now leads the series 2-0.

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