Third time is a charm for Tappara

13 Apr 2016Markus Nisius»

After defeating Kärpät Oulu in game 7, Tappara Tampere advances to the Liiga Finals. There they will meet HIFK, which beat JYP in 6 games. For Tappara this was a delayed gratification.

Kärpät Oulu vs Tappara Tampere 3-4

Despite being one of the most dominant teams over the last years in Finland, the past two seasons ended in big tears for Tappara Tampere. Both times they lost the Finals in game 7 and overtime against Kärpät Oulu and had to see their dream getting crushed just one step away from reaching it.

2016 might be different for them. In the Semi-Finals they were finally able to get past their rivals from the North and fight the curse. Tappara quickly established a 2-0 lead in the series while goalie Tomi Karhunen only allowed two Kärpät goals on 54 shots in the those games. Oulu then found a way to crack the defense and won the next 2 games to even up the duel.

At this point Tappara might have been reminded of the 2014 Finals, when Kärpät came back from a 1-3 deficit in the series. Game 5 and 6 both went into overtime with Tappara winning game 5 and Kärpät coming back in game 6. So the final game was staged in Oulu and Tomi Karhunen was the man of the match once more. He turned away 20 shots for a shutout and so the two goals from Teemu Aalto and Stephen Dixon were enough to kick Oulu out of the playoffs.

Helsinki IFK vs JYP Jyväskylä 4-2

The match-up between Helsinki and Jyväskylä was dominated by home wins until game 5 with the biggest blowout coming in game 3 when HIFK sent JYP back home with a 7-1. Six of those goals came during a 10-minute JYP-meltdown midway through the second period.

In game 6 HIFK finally managed to get the first road win and could avoid a seventh game at home. Ville Husso secured a shoutout, while Juuso Puustinen, Keith Aulie, Joonas Rask and Artti Luttinen provided the goals for a 4-0 victory.

The Finals between HIFK and Tappara start on Friday in Helsinki.