SaiPa storms back, KalPa shutout again

SaiPa Lappeenranta vs Kärpät Oulu 5-3, series 1-1

As game 1 taught SaiPa, you need to be there right from the start to beat Kärpät, otherwise it might be too late to turn things around. So SaiPa stormed out big and achieved a very rare thing against Oulu this season. Valtteri Virkkunen, Chad Rau, Sam Lofquist and Johan Larsson scored 4 goals in only 13 minutes. In the first period Oulu could only answer with goals from Esa Pirnes and Joonas Kemppainen. Suddenly Kärpät needed a comeback. Lukas Kaspar tried to start it with his 3-4 at the halftime mark of the game, but Lofquist added his second goal of the day 3 minutes into the last period. This time SaiPa could hang on to the lead, like Kärpät did it yesterday, and evens the series at one win each, before it goes back on the plane to the north on tuesday.

Helsinki IFK vs Tappara Tampere 3-4OT, series 0-2

It appears as if those two teams don’t really like clear decisions. We still have the overtime marathon in our heads that enabled HIFK to compete in this series and in the regular season the biggest margin between those teams was a 2-0 for Tappara late in the main round. So it didn’t really surprise that we saw another overtime today. And since all 6 goals in regulation had been scored before the 30-minute mark some people already believed it could once again take a while to see a winner emerge from this. Joonas Rask opened the scoring with a powerplay goal after 2:27 minutes, a lead that only stood for 20 seconds before Pekka Jormakka and 3 minutes later Josh Green had turned the tables. Another powerplay at the 9:44 mark saw Juuso Puustinen set the game back to point zero. But still in the first period Pekka Jormakka reestablished the lead for Tappara. It was Nikolai Goldobin’s duty to bring the game into overtime in the second period. So the audience was prepared for a long night now, but some drinks and hot dogs needed to be eaten fast before heading back to the parking lot, because it took Oli Palola only 6 more minutes to lift Tappara to a 4-3 overtime win, that gives them a 2-0 lead in the series.

KalPa Kuopio vs Lukko Rauma 0-3, series 0-2

After the shutout yesterday, KalPa was in desperate need to score goals to gain confidence again. Though it was Lukko starting really quick and successful into the game. 3:44 minutes were played when Filip Riska and Janne Lahti on the powerplay had set the game on track for another Lukko win. It was a shock KalPa should not recover from. Seconds before the last intermission Olavi Vauhkonen scored the third goal for Rauma on just the 7^th Lukko shot in the game up to this point. KalPa changed their goalie and gave Andy Chiodo a break. His counterpart Ryan Zapolski managed to keep all shots out of his net for a second straight time and so KalPa needs to look for its first playoff goal in Rauma on tuesday.

Espoo Blues vs JYP Jyväskylä 0-3, series 0-2

Espoo had big plans for its home game, but it only took JYP 77 seconds to ruin them all. Tuomas Pihlman scored on a powerplay as a penalty was given to Stefano Giliati after only 23 seconds. With this early goal JYP could control the game now and they added to the lead with another quick start in the second period: Mikko Kalteva made the challenge for the Blues even more difficult. Tuomas Tarkki should continue to blank the Espoo offense to get his first playoff shutout of the year, while Miika Lahti contributed with an empty net goal to the 3-0 road win for Jyväskylä.

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