Liiga Finals go full distance

Sport writes crazy stories. We have seen a lot of them and tomorrow we could add another one in the 2015 Liiga Finals. When Kärpät Oulu will host Tappara Tampere for game 7 and the ultimate game for the championship both teams will have come a long way. And the way could have been over already, if it wasn’t for a Tappara team that learned to never give up since they squandered a 3-1 series lead last year themselves.

And Game 6 was a mirror for that as well. In the last game this season in Tampere’s sold out Hakametsä, Tappara basically had to survive the first period somehow. Kärpät hold a 13-2 shot advantage over them, but thanks to an amazing Juho Metsola Tappara did not let pull Oulu away and carried the draw back into the locker room.

After the first break it was Metsola’s counterpart Iiro Tarkki, who had to showcase his talents as now Tappara started to outshoot Oulu. Tarkki managed to save 12 out of the 13 shots he faced during the second period, but when Henrik Haapala received a lucky bounce all alone in front of him and lifted it over his shoulder Tappara went ahead.

The game should shift one more time in the final 20 minutes. Kärpät was more active again and could even up the score through Ben Maxwell carrying the puck with great patience in the slot while a penalty on Tappara’s Masi Marjamäki had just expired and aiming exactly for the upper right corner.

It was the same Marjamäki, who should be the lucky guy to decide the game with 5:39 minutes played in overtime. Jukka Peltola carried the puck over the blue line and took a shot from the right boards that deflected off Tarkki’s pads just to land on the other side of the ice right on Marjamäki’s stick, who saw nothing but net.

With the win Tappara came back from a 1-3 deficit in the series and will look to turn around last year’s events, when Kärpät stole the championship away from them, tomorrow in Oulu.

Tweets by @eurohockey