Espoo sings the Blues

Tappara Tampere vs Helsinki IFK 1-4, series 2-1

So far all the games between both of them had been close this season and except for the final score it should not be any different tonight. Joonas Rask repeated his quick start from Sunday’s game when he again scored after 36 seconds on a deflected shot from the blue line that left Juha Metsola no chance. With a bit of delay Tappara also remembered how game 2 continued. After 30 minutes it was Kristian Kuusela, who finished off a beautiful powerplay combination coming from Josh Green and Jan-Mikael Järvinen to get the equalizer. With time winding down in the second period Teemu Ramstedt found HIFK forward Tomas Zaborsky completely free in front of the goal and he used one of his shootout moves to get the puck past Metsola. HIFK hold on to that lead and could later on add two more empty net goals, although the first of them did not officially count as an empty netter. Metsola was just skating towards the bench, when Otto Honkaheimo intercepted the puck. Metsola saw it, skated back and tried to keep the puck out of the net with a nice, but unsuccessful dive.

Lukko Rauma vs KalPa Kuopio 3-4 OT, series 2-1

KalPa desperately needed a goal after being shutout in both games before. And they got that monkey off their back after 16 minutes when Sami Mutanen first blinded Lukko goalie Ryan Zapolski during a shot from the blue line and then skated past him to tip in the rebound coming off him. But that did not yet solve the main problem of Lukko being the better team in the series so far. Rauma came back with 3 unanswered goals. First Joonas Komulainen found Ville Vahalahti with a lob pass fooling the whole KalPa defense and Vahalahti did not leave Samu Perhonen any chance with his slap shot. Later in the second period Olavi Vauhkonen waited nearby the goal post for his chance on the powerplay and he should get it to bring Lukko ahead.

Vahalahti added his second goal of the night with only 28 seconds played in the last period. This put pressure on KalPa once again, but this time they were ready for the task. A minute later Miika Koivisto cut the lead in half with a slap shot from the blue line, so Juuso Riikola could copy his goal in order to force overtime with 6 minutes to go. It took the overtime 6 minutes to find its hero in Mikael Ruohomaa with a nice solo through Rauma’s defense to give KalPa its first win of the playoffs.

Kärpät Oulu vs SaiPa Lappeenranta 1-0, series 2-1

Oulu must have reminded itself about what made them so strong this year. After the terrible first period in Lappeenranta on Sunday the defense was back to their normal form tonight and did not leave any puck through in the own net. Iiro Tarkki needed 22 saves for his shutout and the only goal of the night was scored at the 26:40 mark by Patrick Davis with a shot from the blue line right off the face-off. Oulu takes the lead in the series with this and carries a 2-1 back into Lappeenranta on Thursday.

JYP Jyväskylä vs Espoo Blues 4-0, series 3-0

JYP can secure its semifinal place next Thursday. The reason for this has two names. First Tuomas Tarkki, who could get the second shutout of the playoffs already against Espoo with 25 saves, and the second one is Markus Hännikäinen, who scored the first two goals himself and assisted on the third one by Mikko Kalteva. Espoo needs to find ways to score again soon or their season will be over by the end of the week.

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