Lahti and HPK win Game 1

The pre-play-offs started today in Finland and both teams from Helsinki are in trouble. Jokerit and HIFK each lost their first game and have to win the next two in order to stay in the play-offs.

Jokerit Helsinki vs Hämeenlinna PK 1-5

Jokerit wanted to win this last championship they are playing in Finland, but their way could end much earlier than expected this year as HPK just found the better start. After 07:40 minutes Ossi-Petteri Grönholm opened the scoring and set the tone for the game.

In the second period it was Teemu Rautiainen who doubled the score for HPK after 5 minutes. Jokerit had to answer now and got the chance on a 5-on-3 powerplay when Borna Rendulic and Juha Koivisto were in the penalty box midway through the second period. Nichlas Hardt finally put the jokers on the board. But 7 minutes later Teemu Rautiainen reestablished the old margin with his second goal oft he night. But that wasn’t the end of the story for the second period. Nichlas Hardt got ejected from the game and the following 5 minutes of power-play should bring the decision in game 1. First Petteri Nikkilä scored one second before the last break and after both teams came back Antti Bruun used the same power-play to finalize a 5-1 win for HPK (assisted by Teemu Rautiainen with his third point of the game).

It seems as HPK got into shape at the right point of the season as they were almost done already, but sneaked into the play-offs in the final days of regular season. Jokerit will try to avoid being the victim of Liiga’s cinderella story for the second straight year tomorrow when the series could already be ended in Hämeenlinna.

Lahti Pelicans vs Helsinki IFK 1-0 OT

In Lahti people didn’t get to see that many goals today, but lots more ice-hockey for their money. The game was definitely dominated by the two defensive departments and both teams also proofed to be very disciplined as we only saw three penalties in the first 60 minutes. This allowed Jere Myllyniemi and Ville Husso to keep their goals clean over the regular time frame.

In overtime it was the same picture for quite some time, but then HIFK got off the game plan a bit. First they had to check out the penalty box twice and after Henrik Forsberg came back to the ice, Lahti could finally beat Ville Husso. Janne Ritamäki scored 58 seconds before the first overtime was supposed to come to an end and gave his team the chance to end the series in Helsinki tomorrow.

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