The Shutout Kings from Turku

23 Nov 2014 | Markus Nisius

TPS Turku has started to move up in the standings. The reason is to be found in a strong defense. In the top game on Saturday JYP was able to pick up 2 points in Oulu.

180 minutes without a goal against is a huge thing in hockey these days, but TPS Turku has managed to do it this week by finding their new favourite score of 3-0. And besides that they could also take revenge on Lukko Rauma for the elimination in the Champions League yesterday.

The first win came on Tuesday against Lahti. Tero Koskiranta, Radek Smolenak and Ryan Lasch could each contribute with one goal, while Teemu Lassila did not just keep 20 pucks from touching the net but also grabbing up an assist on the first goal.

On Friday he needed 2 more saves for his shutout, but the trick with the 3-0 worked as well against one of the hottest teams in the league at the moment, when TPS snapped Ilves’ 6-game winning streak. Jakub Nakladal could write down his name first on the scoresheet with a nice blast from the blueline. This was also where everything started for the second goal, when Matias Sointu stole a puck from his opponent on the blue line, turned the direction of play around and found Ilkka Pikkarainen wide open. Later Niclas Lucenius added an empty netter and finished the second game only in this season in which Ilves was held scoreless.

Yesterday it was the trio of Pikkarainen, Koskiranta and Lasch, who provided the goals for another 3-0 shutout against Lukko, the team that ended Turku’s hopes to win the Champions League. This was Lassila’s most difficult working day this week as he had to turn aside 34 shots from the Rauma offense. TPS has now slided into a Pre-PlayOff spot and if they continue to shutout their opponents, the top 6 are only three points away.

The top game of Saturday however was held in Oulu when JYP visited the town. Eric Perrin scored first for JYP with a nice move through the legs of his opponent before hitting it in the right upper corner of the net in the first period. A power play midway through the second period brought the equalizer for Kärpät when Arto Laatikainen deflected a shot from Juha Pekka Haataja. With this score the game went into overtime, where Petr Hubacek decided the game for JYP after a nice feed from Mikko Kalteva.