Comebacks cut off by favourites

Kärpät Oulu vs SaiPa Lappeenranta 4-2, series 1-0

As the first seed of Liiga, Kärpät obviously entered this game and this series as the high favourites and they attempted to prove that right from the start. Joonas Kemppainen opened the scoring after 11:29 minutes before Mika Pyörälä could add a powerplay goal still before the break. The trend kept going when Kemppainen got his second of the game with 8 minutes played in the second period. At that point a clear 3-0 for Oulu seemed to be a done deal already against a traditionally defensively strong team like Kärpät. But SaiPa fought back: 3 minutes later Johan Larsson got Lappeenranta on the scoresheet and with 6 minutes gone in the last period David McIntyre gave the audience an open game again. In the end it was Julius Junttila with his empty net goal, who created the final score of 4-2 for Oulu.

Tappara Tampere vs Helsinki IFK 4-3, series 1-0

Tampere should be witness to an unsuccessful comeback for the start of the playoffs. Luckily for the home crowd it came with their team on the laughing end. With 3:48 minutes off the clock Olli Palola, the best goal scorer of the regular season, could add a first playoff goal to his 29 markers during the round robin round. And he shouldn’t even have to wait too long for the second as well. After Jukka Paltola and Yohan Auvitu traded goals for both teams in the second period, Palola had another quick start to a period when he scored the 3-1 only 42 seconds into the third frame. HIFK looked dead, but this is where the comeback came into play and it had a name: Teemu Ramstedt scored twice in the next 13 minutes to even the game at 3-3. Being positive about overtimes since the historic battle with Ilves on Sunday right in the same spot as the game today was played, HIFK probably would have liked to see the game continue for the last 5 minutes with a draw. Though not even 2 minutes later Henrik Haapala put in the game-winner for Tappara.

Lukko Rauma vs KalPa Kuopio 3-0, series 1-0

Starting strong into a playoff series can be crucial sometimes. However, efficiency is even worth more. Lukko combined both in the first period. Despite a 10-4 shot advantage for KalPa it was Olavi Vauhkonen, who scored on 2 of the 4 shots to give Rauma the lead in the dying seconds of the opening period. KalPa should keep up shooting more than Rauma, but Ryan Zapolski managed to keep all of them out of his net, while Aaron Gagnon added a third Lukko goals after 32 minutes.

JYP Jyväskylä vs Espoo Blues 3-1, series 1-0

Espoo might have been the hottest team of 2015 so far, making it from a team battling in the last spots of the table to an easy direct playoff qualification. So JYP knew who is coming to town with this team. With 14:40 minutes played Petr Hubacek broke the tie for JYP in a game that saw none of the teams being dominant. Consequently the 1-1 through Victor Westermarck at the end of the second period was well deserved. Only in the last period JYP started to see more shots of their own and they took profit from it. Jani Tuppurainen on the powerplay early in the period and Markus Poukkula’s empty netter could beat the dangerous Blues 3-1.

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