Thriller of the North: Kärpät defends championship

It was a long journey up from Tampere for the Tappara fans this morning, but they wanted to be a part of it when Tappara wins its first championship since 2003. At least the momentum was their’s after 2 consecutive wins to come back from a 1-3 deficit in the series.

In a very disciplined game the first player to lose his temper a bit was Stephen Dixon, who received a penalty and was so unhappy about the call that he added another 10 disciplinary minutes to his record. He was still sitting out for his personal penalty when Joonas Donskoi skated into the offensive zone, turning to the centre and scoring high on the glove side of Juho Metsola for the Kärpät lead.

Oulu kept pressuring through the second period, but had to walk back to the locker room without further change to the score. Tappara had one last period to prove their known comeback skills and Olli Palola did. With 2:22 minutes played, he beat Iiro Tarkki with a one timer through the five-hole from the left face-off circle.

So the game was forced into overtime and as nobody was able to get past Metsola or Tarkki in the first one, the arena crew had to get out the Zamboni one more time. What nobody knew at the time was that only one minute more was needed. Ivan Huml carried the puck in his own end and saw Sebastian Aho coming from the bench. A cross ice pass found Aho all alone in front of Metsola and he kept his cool beating Metsola through the legs.

For Kärpät Oulu this is the 7^th Finnish Championship and the second in a row as they defeated Tappara in 7 games already last year. Back then it was Juhamatti Aaltonen with an overtime winner.

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