Reigning champion Kiekko-Espoo goes to the semi-finals as a challenger – the head coach is confident: “We are on schedule”

The reigning champion of the Women’s Ice Hockey League, Kiekko-Espoo, starts its semi-final match against KalPa today, Wednesday.

However, the team from Espoo, which dominated the women’s hockey league in the 2000s, is in a strange situation: it does not enter the series as the biggest championship favorite.

In the regular season, the ranking was third after HIFK and KalPa, and Kuortane faced Kuortane in the quarterfinals. The group consisting of youth national team players made the people of Espoo hard, although in the end the victories went 3–1 in favor of Kiekko-Espoo.

The place in the semi-finals was not easy, because the first leg was won by the people of Kuortan and twice the decision was extended to the overtime.

– Kuortane has a young, strong group that has clearly grown into a way of playing where the center of their own area is closely defended. However, they have a top point guard Emilia Kyrkko, who has represented the women’s national team all season. I take my hat off to our team, we always had to work hard for one goal, but we calmed down and continued to play, head coach of Kiekko-Espoo Sami Haapanen chatted.

– Two overtime wins and a 3-0 win in the fourth game away from home show the strength. I’m really happy with how we went forward.

In the end, Kiekko-Espoo was third in the regular season after HIFK and KalPa. On the final weekend of the regular season, however, it lost both of its struggles: Ilves was even better in Tampere by 7–1 and HPK claimed a 2–0 victory in Espoo.

When the first quarter-final match against Kuortanettaki started with a loss, many could already wonder whether the perennial winner will be seen in the semi-finals at all.

Haapanen didn’t have time to worry.

– Of course, losing always raises questions about whether we are in the right direction. Let’s put it in preparation. We know what we aim for and what we want. We are on schedule, the head coach acknowledges.

KalPa dominated the Women’s League even before the Christmas break and led the series with a ten point difference over HIFK. In January, however, it lost its number one striker Elisa Holopainen to the patient.

After that, the people of Kuopio lost all their matches against the top teams, i.e. HIFK and Kiekko-Espoo.

Of the four regular season meetings between Kiekko-Espoo and KalPa, however, Kuopio won three.

Haapanen hopes that the semifinal series will be as long as possible.

– We believe that a long streak will fall on us. Since the beginning of the season, everyone has hinted that this year HIFK and KalPa will play in the finals and we want to move that setup.

The schedule brings its own challenge to the semifinal series. HIFK and HPK started their own match on Tuesday, while Kiekko-Espoo and KalPa will jump into the rink today, Wednesday. The next match is already on Thursday, and the third match on Saturday. If the series is not decided directly in three matches, the teams will also meet on Sunday – i.e. for the fourth time in five days.

– On Saturday, there is still a game in the morning, so Friday is a travel day. I think the most important thing is to react to the right things on the way. We lose, we win, how does it affect the next day, how do we recover, how do we get nutrition, are the fluids OK. Big in top sports at the moment. We have a lot of young players who are slowly growing into a sports career. Let’s see how we managed to run things in.

The tight schedule is surprising, especially when the series took a break of almost six weeks in December. Haapanen is not going to fall behind schedule.

– I want to leave the preparation and planning of match programs to the competition manager of the Ice Hockey League Pirkka for Antila. Antila makes the programs and we play according to the program. You have to know how to react to things correctly. Let’s hope that we have done things right and the results will show that.

HIFK is chasing its first championship in history

HIFK and HPK started their semi-final match in Pirkkola on Tuesday. The team from Helsinki, chasing their first Women’s League championship, continued their strong performances during the season and defeated the Hämeenlinna team 2–0 in the first meeting.

Who other than the winner of the regular season point exchange was responsible for both hits Michaela Pejzlova – his roommate Julia Liikalan initializations. HPK guard Nora Räty stretched into the path of the puck 35 times.

In the semifinals, HIFK literally crushed Kärpät: the first leg ended 12–0, the second 8–0 and the third 6–0.

National team forward Liikala believes that the series will be tougher against HPK.

– HPK defends really well, they can defend our movement and our puck play. When all we can do is grind, mistakes start coming. No one can defend 60 minutes so well that no goals can be scored. When we are able to defend against their individual attacks, I can see that we will continue, Liikala acknowledged.

HIFK went into the season strengthened, as it got a national team striker who represented Kiekko-Espoo last season, for example Emilia Vesan and the super promising one from Tampere Sanni Vanhanen.

When Pejzlova, Liikalan and by Clara Rozier talents like IFK, were told that IFK was a strong champion candidate already at the beginning of the season.

However, according to Liikala, the team does not take pressure from the position of champion favorite.

– We just do our own thing and that’s how we go as far as we go.

Will HIFK play in the final?

– Yes, we will play.