The Shutout Kings from Turku
23 Nov 2014 | Markus Nisius
TPS Turku has started to move up in the standings. The reason is to be found in a strong defense. In the top game on Saturday JYP was able to pick up 2 points in Oulu.
180 minutes
without a goal against is a huge thing in hockey these days, but TPS Turku has
managed to do it this week by finding their new favourite score of 3-0. And
besides that they could also take revenge on Lukko Rauma for the elimination in
the Champions League yesterday.
The first
win came on Tuesday against Lahti. Tero Koskiranta, Radek Smolenak and Ryan
Lasch could each contribute with one goal, while Teemu Lassila did not just
keep 20 pucks from touching the net but also grabbing up an assist on the first
goal.
On Friday he
needed 2 more saves for his shutout, but the trick with the 3-0 worked as well
against one of the hottest teams in the league at the moment, when TPS snapped
Ilves’ 6-game winning streak. Jakub Nakladal could write down his name first on
the scoresheet with a nice blast from the blueline. This was also where
everything started for the second goal, when Matias Sointu stole a puck from
his opponent on the blue line, turned the direction of play around and found
Ilkka Pikkarainen wide open. Later Niclas Lucenius added an empty netter and
finished the second game only in this season in which Ilves was held scoreless.
Yesterday
it was the trio of Pikkarainen, Koskiranta and Lasch, who provided the goals for
another 3-0 shutout against Lukko, the team that ended Turku’s hopes to win the
Champions League. This was Lassila’s most difficult working day this week as he
had to turn aside 34 shots from the Rauma offense. TPS has now slided into a
Pre-PlayOff spot and if they continue to shutout their opponents, the top 6 are
only three points away.
The top
game of Saturday however was held in Oulu when JYP visited the town. Eric Perrin
scored first for JYP with a nice move through the legs of his opponent before
hitting it in the right upper corner of the net in the first period. A power
play midway through the second period brought the equalizer for Kärpät when
Arto Laatikainen deflected a shot from Juha Pekka Haataja. With this score the
game went into overtime, where Petr Hubacek decided the game for JYP after a
nice feed from Mikko Kalteva.