Kärpät and Tappara make the finals

Kärpät Oulu vs JYP Jyväskylä 4-2, series: 4-3

Come out strong from the locker room and you’ll win. That must have been the strategy of Kärpät Oulu in game 7 of their semi-finals as they managed to follow that principle 3 times. In the first period Esa Pirnes needed only 3:44 minutes to beat Tuomas Tarkki in JYP’s net with a nice shot from the blue line. A few minutes before the first break Mikko Luomo could tie that up when the whole Oulu defense seemed to be a bit lost and he picked up the puck, skated all around them, faked to go behind the net and instead chipped it in past Tomi Karhunen.

The second period was opened by Juho Keränen, who took a shot from the face-off circle that somehow slided past Tarkki to give Oulu another early lead in a period. When Joonas Donskoi  opened the third period by adding a powerplay goal the game looked like it would go Oulu’s way. But Eric Perrin made it an open game again when he jumped on a turnover and got it in the net with a spectacular dive. In the end it was not enough for JYP as Esa Pirnes could score a second goal in the game into the empty net.

Tappara Tampere vs Lukko Rauma 4-2, series: 4-3

Lukko was up in the series with 3-1, but three consecutive wins for Tappara changed everything. The first period saw an incredibly efficient Tappara team that got the lead after 10 minutes on a remarkable combination. Jan-Mikael Järvinen’s outlet pass to Pekka Jormakka felt like the perfect asisst already, but Jormakka saw that Jukka Peltola was even more open on the left side and feeded him for the opening goal. Four minutes later Jormakka made it himself with a swift shot from the blue line.

With 36 minutes off the clock Josh Green intercepted the puck and was up against Ryan Zapolski all alone to finally make it 3-0 Tappara. Only with 2 minutes gone in the last period Lukko could make a mark in this game. Aaron Gagnon poked in a puck on the powerplay and gave Rauma a little bit of hope, which got shattered 8 minutes after that by Olli Palola, who appeared free in front of Zapolski, pulled the puck to the left of the goalie and could easily lay it in for the deciding 4-1. Olavi Vauhkonen added one more goal for Lukko, but this did not change the fact, that Tappara will go to the finals and challenge the team, that did to them last year, what Tappara just did to Lukko: Finish their dreams of a championship by turning around a 1-3 in a series.

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