Do Svidaniya Jokerit!

It should have been a great run to a last championship, but HPK was in the way and so the era of Jokerit in Finland’s Liiga ends with a 0-2 Pre-Play-Off loss in Haemeenlinna. The other team from Helsinki, IFK, is also out of the race.

Hämeenlinna PK vs Jokerit Helsinki 3-2

HPK didn’t want to waste any time to show where their way is supposed to go. After 2:51 minutes Borna Rendulic opened the scoring and in that moment HPK was in the quarterfinals. But not so fast: There is a reason why many people had Jokerit as the top contenders for the championship before the season. This reason is a lot of skill. One of the lines that have this skill fought back 6 minutes later when Jani Rita converted feeds from Ben Walter and Jarkko Ruuttu.

But also in the second period HPK was the dominating team in this game and it became more and more clear that this could be the last Jokerit game in the Finnish elite league. 58 seconds were played in the second period when the match-winner of game 1 scored again: Teemu Rautiainen. HPK again on the way to the quarterfinals. But no, there was one last attempt to keep the last season alive. Another 6 minutes later Markus Hännikäinen scored the last Jokerit goal in Liiga, because after that Juuse Saros in HPK’s net stopped everything else what Jokerit tried.

Even when Jokerit had the chance to play for over a minute 5-on-3 in the third period, they could not add another goal. So it was the honour of Teemu Rinkinen six minutes before the end of the game to not only bring his team into the quarterfinals, but also say goodbye to Jokerit Helsinki in the Finnish league.

HPK will face Oulu in the next round

Helsinki IFK vs Lahti Pelicans  1-2 OT

The other team from Helsinki also had to fight back from a loss in game 1, but they fell behind after 23 minutes, when Juha-Pekka Pietilä scored on a feed from Oskari Korpikari. HIFK needed longer than Jokerit to fight back, but eventually they did. With 7:31 minutes left Juuso Puustinen equalized the game and sent it into overtime. So it was already the second straight overtime game in the series as Lahti won game 1 also in OT. And after 4 minutes and 50 seconds Lahti finished the series and advanced to the quarterfinals where they will meet Tappara. The OT winner was scored by Juha Leimu.

Quarterfinal setup of Liiga:

Kärpät Oulu   vs   Hämeenlinna PK
Tappara Tampere  vs  Lahti Pelicans
Lukko Rauma   vs   Espoo Blues
SaiPa Lappeenranta   vs   JYP Jyväskylä

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