Party postponed - Tappara defeats Oulu

Exactly 366 days ago Tappara Tampere celebrated a 3-2 OT victory over Kärpät Oulu to give them a 3-1 series lead in the Finals. It almost looked like they will win their next championship. But 5 days later it was Oulu raising the cup and celebrating for the full summer. This year the table has been turned. With an overtime victory on Monday Kärpät could establish a 3-1 lead in the series and now it is Tappara’s job to come back.

In game 5 today they started things off at the half time mark with a slapshot from Alexander Bonsaksen that bounced off Kärpät goalie Tomi Karhunen and landed on the stick of Kristian Kuusela, who converted it for the go ahead goal. Four minutes later Olli Palola doubled the score, set up by Josh Green from behind the goal.

After the last intermission the game got crazy for a few minutes. With 20 seconds off the clock Adam Masuhr cut the lead in half with a slapshot in the upper right corner of the goal. Three minutes later Tappara regained the old lead. Henrik Haapala played a lift pass all across the ice to Pekka Jormakka, who was all alone in front of Karhunen and netted in the puck. Shortly after, Esa Pirnes cut through the Tappara defense creating space for Julius Junttila, who could score the 2-3 for Oulu. But again Tappara found the answer. Stephen Dixon scored from the slot completely ignoring his opponent in front of him.

Kärpät could make it interesting one more time when a puck slipped through to Lasse Kukkonen on the left side by accident and he beat Juho Metsola for the 3-4. But Tappara hold on to the lead and will now try to even the series on Friday and maybe take revenge for the bitter final defeat last year.

Tweets by @eurohockey