Kärpät sends clear message to JYP

Kärpät Oulu vs JYP Jyväskylä 8-3, series: 2-1

It turns out to be a spectacular series, which lacks all the defensive minded hockey we know from playoffs in general and Kärpät Oulu in particular. The fans enjoyed the 5-4 win in game 1 already when the “Joonas  Brothers” line sank JYP all on their own. At the end of that game both Joonas Donskoi and Joonas Kemppainen had 4 points and were an important key in turning around a 4-2 JYP lead in the final 4 minutes. In Game 2 JYP turned the tables and won the game in overtime through a goal by Tuomas Pihlman 5-4 themselves. On that afternoon no team could get beyond a 1-goal margin.

This changed quickly today. Within 24 minutes of play Kärpät established a 6-0 lead. The most impressive feat about that was the powerplay efficiency early on. On the 4 powerplay opportunities JYP gave away in that time span, Kärpät needed only 3:30 minutes in total to score on all of them. The game was obviously through with that kind of lead and so the following JYP goals by Tuppurainen, Hubacek and Poukkula were only for the statistics in an 8-3 Kärpät win. Mika Pyörälä, Sakari Manninen and Ben Maxwell all scored twice for Oulu.

JYP will now look to come back on Wednesday with a win in their own premises to even the series.

Tappara Tampere vs Lukko Rauma 1-2, series: 1-2

After a 5-2 opening win for Tappara on Friday, that looked a lot easier on the scoreboard than it actually was as two of the goals came into an empty net with the clock ticking down, Tappara got into trouble with a Lukko team afterwards, which starts to get rolling. Kristian Kuusela’s 3-point game on friday was forgotten already when Lukko set the series to 1-1 with an attempt to break HIFK’s record for the longest Liiga game ever on Saturday. After Janne Lahti and Pekka Jormakka had avoided a scoreless regulation for both teams, it was again Lahti, who decided the game in the third overtime for Rauma at the 110^th minute.

Back in Tampere today, the crowd should see a similar game, but without overtime. 15:34 minutes into the game Joonas Komulainen received the puck at the face-off circle, made a few steps towards the goal, faked a shot to get his defender on his knees and then made the move around him to finally put the puck in the net for the Lukko lead. Like in game 2 Tappara was able to get the equalizer in the second period. Jan-Mikael Järvinen used his skills to skate all around the Lukko defense and still had the eye to see that Henrik Tömmernes had managed to sneak away from the defense on the far post, where he could easily tip in the puck.

But six minutes later Olavi Vauhkonen netted in a rebound of a Komulainen shot in what turned out to become the game winner in game 3. Lukko now carries the series lead back home on Wednesday where they will try to shake off Tappara in order to get to the finals quickly.

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