Going the distance

11 Apr 2015Markus Nisius»

The way to the Liiga finals is not an easy one this year. Both matchups were forced into a seventh game today. Tappara even managed to pull even after trailing 1-3 in the series.

JYP Jyväskylä vs Kärpät Oulu 4-3, series: 3-3

Since Oulu won game 5 at home this series was still waiting for its first road win and it should not come today, although Kärpät started well with a goal by Ryan Glenn finishing off a breakaway just a few minutes in. But when Eric Perrin skated all along the boards and found Mikko Mäenpää all open behind him in the left face-off circle, the game should take another direction. Mäenpää’s equalizer was followed by a turnover in the Kärpät defense, that was picked up by Petr Hubacek and put in the net by Tuomas Pihlman still before the first intermission.

Shortly after both teams were back on the ice Pihlman got a pass on the blue line and hammered it in the left corner for his second goal of the game. For Oulu’s Mika Pyörälä it was the 100^th playoff game in Liiga, but even his deflection of an Arto Laatikainen shot should not turn the game into his teams’ favour. 10 minutes were played in the last period when Miika Lahti converted another 3-on-2 break for JYP to regain the 2-goal difference. Esa Pirnes could cut the lead in half one more time with a rebound off his own shot, but JYP hold on to the home win and so they will have to go to Oulu one more time on Monday.

Lukko Rauma vs Tappara Tampere 3-4, series 3-3

Tappara was already back 1-3 in this series, but last year’s finalist won’t give up just yet. After winning at home yesterday, they were at it again today and shocked Lukko with Henrik Tömmernes‘ shot from the blue line 28 seconds into the game, which completely surprised Ryan Zapolski in Lukko’s net. Pushed by their fans Lukko fought back and got a goal denied after video review at the 9:00 mark. 7 seconds later the video judge said yes, when Mikko Kousa tipped in a loose puck in front of the goal on the powerplay. A third review one more minute later was again denied and then Tappara had enough of all the waiting for decisions. Olli Palola grabbed a puck in the offensive zone and buried it past Zapolski without any doubt. Still in the first period Teemu Aalto set the game to 3-1 Tappara with a powerplay blast.

Then the game took a little nap for 35 minutes before Alexander Bonsaksen found the spot Aalto scored from and hammered one in himself to give Tappara a 3-goal lead. Late in the game Lukko could answer with 2 goals through Henrik Forsberg and Toni Koivisto, but this came too late. Tappara changed the momentum of this series and will try to use it in game 7 on Monday at home in Tampere.