JYP sweeps Blues

Espoo Blues vs JYP Jyväskylä 4-7, series 0-4

The good news first: Espoo finally managed to score against Jyväskylä. The bad news: 4 goals were not enough. The game started well for Espoo with Miro Altonen using a turnover after 5 minutes. Eric Perrin got JYP back with a billiard goal 4 minutes later and from this point on the game should keep bouncing back and forth between both teams. Otso Rantakari was first for Espoo with a slapshot from the blue line, but their defense made a similar mistake as previously seen from JYP and so Marko Kauppinen scored the second for JYP. Shortly after, Petr Hubacek got Jyväskylä in the lead twice which was equalized by Ville Korhonen and Siim Liivik each time providing Barona Areena with an exciting 4-4 game after 50 minutes.

But then it was Valteri Hotakainen, who tipped in a free puck in the crease, and this time the Blues did not come back any more. Jani Tuppurainen and Markus Poukkula could add two empty net goals to send the Blues on holidays. JYP can now lean back and wait for their next opponent.

SaiPa Lappeenranta vs Kärpät Oulu 2-5, series 1-3

One of JYP’s potential opponents could come from this series. After both teams exchanged one goal each in the first period and an unspectacular second period the referee let all SaiPa fans dream of an even series when he confirmed that Chad Rau did not deflect the puck above the goal height after video review and let the 2-1 count. But a lucky bounce by Ben Maxwell and the skills of Joonas Donskoi, who scored twice on shots from the middle range turned the tables in Oulu’s favour. Maxwell got a second goal with 8 seconds to go into the empty net. Kärpät can finish it now on Saturday at home in Oulun Energian Areena.

Helsinki IFK vs Tappara Tampere 5-1, series 2-2

HIFK is back in the series. After some problems early on, they found back to the game that made them so strong throughout the year. The offense is clicking again. Two early goals set the tone for the game. Mika Partanen and Yohann Auvitu on the powerplay scored in the first 9 minutes. From that moment on Tappara was just chasing that lead. Zaborsky and Robert Leino could get three more goals on the board for HIFK, while on Tappara’s side only Olli Palola could avoid the shutout. The series will go back to Tampere on Saturday and Tappara needs to stop the hot HIFK offense now.

KalPa Kuopio vs Lukko Rauma 4-2, series 2-2

Remember how KalPa struggled to get pucks past Ryan Zapolski in the first two games? Those times seem to be over for now. Michal Birner and Mikael Ruohomaa managed to do the trick twice in the opening period. Eetu Koski could even the game in between for Lukko, but KalPa is playing with a lot more confidence now. In the last period things got interesting again when Toni Koivisto set the score to 2 goals each after 23 seconds. 4:32 minutes were left on the clock when Ruohomaa got his second goal and third point of the evening, which turned out to be the game winner. Janne Keränen scored an insurance goal shortly after and so the series is all open again.

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