More than sixty minutes

JYP Jyväskylä vs Kärpät Oulu 2-1 OT, series: 2-2

After an 8-3 rout over JYP on easter Monday, Kärpät had to start from zero again and JYP managed it well to shake off the horrible night quickly. In fact an amazing play by Markus Poukkula got them on the board first. Poukkula skated into the offensive zone and used his puckhandling skills to draw 4 Kärpät players to him while finding Markus Nenonen completely open on the other side of the ice. Nenonen said thank you and put it past Iiro Tarkki. Three minutes into the second period however the “Joonas Brothers” were at it again. Donskoi skated over the blue line and hit the brakes, shaking off two defenders, spinned around and found Kemppainen on the far post, who deflected it in the net for the equalizer.

The referees had one more extra task to solve when a JYP shot ended up on both goal posts, but the video review denied the goal. At the game’s 73:23 mark the time for a decision had come. Juuso Pulli got the puck on the blue line off a face-off and had all the time to aim. He used it and his straight blast ended up in the upper right corner of the net to give JYP the win and even the series again. In Oulu on Friday they will now try to avoid another beating like that on Monday.

Lukko Rauma vs Tappara Tampere 5-4 OT, series: 3-1

Lukko fans, who came a bit late today, might have been under the impression that their team was in a hurry to make it to the finals. Rauma shot from all angles and Juha Metsola just could not get his hands (or any other body part) on it. Olavi Vauhkonen’s shot from the right boards into the right corner was a real beauty, Janne Niskala hammered it in from the blue line and Jonne Virtanen was so free in the slot that he could put a lot of feeling into the shot to get it exactly in the corner.

Metsola had to be pulled after 4 shots only and Tappara understood. Masi Marjamäki with a wrap around, Henrik Haapala and Kristian Kuusela with two rebounds could tie the game until the half time mark at three goals each. Now the game became a bit less wild and saw only two more goals until the overtime started. Aaron Gagnon converted a break for Lukko and Jere Karjalainen tied it up again in the last period.

The decision came only a few seconds later than in Jyväskylä. Toni Koivisto and the puck carrying Janne Lahti crossed paths in the offensive zone, which led to three Tappara players following Lahti to the left side while Koivisto sneaked away to the other side, got the puck and buried it. Lukko can now finish the series on Friday in Tampere’s Hakametsä.

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