Liiga – Lukko on the run

The big European leagues are heading towards the Olympic break and, in Finland at least, Lukko Rauma is making the best of it. They try to collect as many points as possible before it to strengthen their position for a direct play-off spot. And they succeed with that lately. Yesterday’s 2-0 win in the west coast battle against Turku was already the 4^th consecutive win for Rauma. It just needed the goals of Steven Zalewski and Aaron Gagnon to secure three important points against the team in the last position.

On Thursday they already managed to get three points out of Lappeenranta, where they beat SaiPa, the third placed team. After establishing a quick 2-0 lead through Toni Koivisto and Ilkka Mikkola, it was Ville Vahalahti, who finished the job with two goals in the last period to get a final 4-1 on the board.

And while Ilkka Mikkola and Ville Vahalahti also had key roles in the wins over  KalPa and JYP to start this run, they do have to thank another player for these wins: goalie Ryan Zapolski. In none of these four games did Lukko have more shots on goal than their opposition had.

While Lukko is in the comfortable position to fight for a direct play-off spot, other teams still have to fight for a play-off spot at all. And yesterday the team that is currently in the last spot faced off with the one sitting behind. HPK hosted Lahti and wanted to pass by them with a win. And after two periods it looked like they could follow through with that plan. Juho Kiilholma and Borna Rendulic had turned around the go ahead goal by Jesse Niinimäki and even the early third period equalizer (again Jesse Niinimäki) could not stop them. At 53:36 Ville Viitaluoma reestablished the 3-2 lead for HPK and in that moment most people in Hämeenlinna were already looking forward to the play-offs. But much as the Pelicans came back during the season, they also managed to come back in this game. A minute later Janne Ritamäki equalized the game once more and with 2:21 to go Timo Pärssinen finally scored the game-winner for the Pelicans. This win makes it a 4-point gap again for Lahti and HPK will have to find another way to get past them.

Tweets by @eurohockey