Helsinki claims back top from Oulu

A quick look at the special team statistics in Finland's Liiga might surprise you. The top team from Helsinki seems to struggle a bit with a man down (79,17%), while the powerplay works well on the other side (21,05%). And the game in Tampere's Hakametsä tonight mirrored all of those statistics.

Not even three minutes were played when Jasse Ikonen gave the hosts the first chance with the man advantage. It took Teemu Aalto a bit over a minute to convert it with a big slap shot from the face-off circle for the 1-0 lead. At the end of the first period Matt Generous created yet another powerplay for Tappara, but this time it was Helsinki's moment to shine. Jasse Ikonen, the „bad boy“ from earlier in the period, and Thomas Nykopp scored two short handers within 10 seconds to give the game a turn in Helsinki's favour. Ikonen took profit from a turnover by Aleksi Elorinne, while Nykopp banged in a slap shot set up by Micke-Max Asten and made possible by an obviously shocked Tappara defense, that had no contact to its opponents at all.

The powerplay efficiency got carried over into the second period. At the 28:23 minute mark, HIFK got the first chance of its own and proved their skills once more. Teemu Ramsted scored, just to see Robert Leino repeat the trick 6 minutes later on the second occasion for HIFK. In between Tappara failed on one powerplay, which should remain only one out of two powerplay situations during the game that saw no goals. The next one though was used again by Tappara through Kristian Kuusela, resulting in a 4-2 lead for HIFK after the second period.

13 minutes into the last period, HIFK almost blew the game due to its bad habits on the penalty kill. Jere Karjalainen scored the third powerplay goal of the night for Tappara, but HIFK remained disciplined afterwards to carry home the 4-3 win.

Kärpät disappoints in Kouvola

The win catapulted HIFK to the top, since Kärpät could only come away with a sole point from Kouvola. Mikko Lehtonen scored twice in the second period for KooKoo with two dynamic attacks through the slot to give the team from Southern Finland a 2-0 lead. However, by the end of the period that lead was gone already, thanks to a similar effort by Mika Pyörälä, who chose to ignore the opponent hanging on his back, and Saku Mäenalanen's shot from the blue line.

A scoreless last period and overtime was followed by a shootout, that got decided by Josh Green in favour of the home team.

JYP remains successful in the battle of Middle Finland

Tappara slipped down into 4^th place as JYP could collect 2 points in a shootout win in Kuopio. JYP went ahead through two goals by Mikko Salmio and Valtteri Hotakainen and looked like a safe bet for three points. But KalPa managed to achieve what nobody could have imagined. With time ticking down, Eero Kilpeläinen was pulled. Sebastian Lauritzen scored soon enough on a quick shot off the face-off to give his team the time to go for the equalizer with a pulled goalie. 52 seconds away from the final sirene Jesse Mankinen won a battle in the corner and found Joni Nikko open in front of the goal to force overtime.

In the shootout Janne Tavi prevented Kuopio from having the ultimate comeback win and decided the game with a backhand shot. JYP is now in third position in the league.

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