Historic Pelicans game can’t stop JYP

15 Dec 2015Markus Nisius»

Juha Leimu of the Lahti Pelicans wrote history tonight, but in the end Jyväskylä could keep its winning streak alive in a 6-5 OT win. Ryan Potulny also managed to get a record.

A few weeks back we were quite worried about the play of JYP Jyväskylä as they dropped out of the play-off ranks right behind the new guys from Kouvola. 10 games and 9 wins (and only an OT defeat against KalPa) later the story looks a lot different again. Tonight they were hosting another hot team in the Lahti Pelicans, who just recently learned how to fly, with a 6-game winning streak they carried into the game.

So obviously Finnish hockey fans expected good ice-hockey from this match and they should not get disappointed. The Pelicans had the better start with a quick goal by Joonas Alanne banging in his own rebound on a breakaway. It took JYP only 6 minutes to turn things around. First Janne Tavi beat Janne Juvonen with a beautiful backhand shot and then Aleksi Salonen brought through a deflected shot from the blueline for the 2-1 lead for JYP.

When Mikko Kalteva scored on a similar shot during a power-play 6 minutes into the second period, some people might have believed in a settled game already. But later in the period JYP received two major penalties against Anssi Löfman and Nolan Yonkman giving Lahti more than 4 minutes of a 5-on-3 powerplay, setting the table for some historic events.

At the 38:10 mark Juhani Tyrväinen scored to get within only one goal. A minute and 24 seconds later Juha Leimu had added 3 more goals for Lahti to give his team a 5-3 advantage. With his hattrick in only 44 seconds he broke a more than 50 year old record hold by Erkki Suokko. And Leimu wasn't the only one breaking a record.

Ryan Potulny assisted on all 4 goals breaking the record for the fastest four assists, that stood at 15 minutes and 37 seconds. Obviously he also got the record for the fastest 3 assists in 44 seconds.

With history been made, JYP did not want to back down and get at least something out of the evening. With 9 minutes left in the game Valtteri Kemiläinen tipped in a feed from Topi Nättinen and 2 minutes later Nättinen found Mikko Luoma all open on a power-play, who evened the score to force overtime. 3:22 minutes into extra time Jani Tuppurainen had all the patience it needed in front of the goalie to see Nättinen on the right side, so that the young winger could finish his 4-point night with the game winning goal.

Jyväskylä is now back in 4^th place already, while Lahti could hang on to the 8^th spot.