The “final” of the opening third of the ice hockey league went to Ilves, who defeated Tappara this time in overtime 4–3. After three local games, the score is 8–1 for Ilves.
Petri Kontiola39, returned from a mini-retirement break following last spring’s bronze medal season and reappeared after a 16-year hiatus in his debut in a Tappara jersey Veli-Matti Savinainen and Anton Levtchin as a center forward in a local match.
“Konna” reached the points when he gave a sharp stab pass to Levtchi at the beginning of the second period, who was able to tie the game at 1-1. The power point was Kontiola’s first of the decade in the Tappara ranks.
Defender of Kontiola and the NHL’s 2016 fifth reserve Olli Juolevin however, the examples were not enough to turn the tide for Tappara.
“Tappara Punisher” Joona Ikonen scored a 4–3 winning goal in overtime, while Kontiola at the same time made up for his hooking goal in the halftime. Ikonen’s winning goal was the second in three local matches of the season.
– We had enough chances to win today. Quite a good game, a little more sharpness. My game went a little tense, I played simple and short exchanges. Better next time, Kontiola said when jumping on the “moving train” after half a year’s break.
Lynx Adam Glendening, 31, had his second two-goal night (2+1) in the SM league. The Yankee defender, who plays himself as a power defender, has scored 4+3=7 points in seven league games. Glendening, who plays with his right hand down, has played 90 games in the NHL, where he collected 4+20=24 points.
Sport celebrated in Dufva’s party game, ruined SaiPa’s birthday
Ending his coaching career after the current season, coaching in his 17th season in the SM league Risto Dufva got his 900th game under his belt in the hockey league on Friday. He is only ahead of him in the all-time match statistics of head coaches Jukka Rautakorpi and Pekka Virta.
The Sport coach got into a party mood when TPS went down 4–2 by Simon Hjalmarsson, Teemu Suhonen, Miro Nallin and by Sebastian Strålberg with full hits. The match was delayed for twenty minutes in the second period, when Vaasa had problems with a couple of bigger ice grooves.
HIFK lost their two-goal lead in the last five minutes of the second period, when SaiPa, which was playing its 75th anniversary match, went up 2-2 in Kisapuisto. However, HIFK took care of the series jumbo in the final set with three additional goals and won the points pot with a basic routine 5–3. Julius Nättinen and Petteri Lindbohm collected 1+1 for the winners.
Antti Tyrväinen debuted in a Pelicans shirt, scored a 2–0 goal and brought the necessary additional energy to the team from Lahti, which had a small victory in the early season. Series-winner Ässät went from three goals behind to 2–3, but the streak fell a little short.
– We started well and played an upbeat match. Every change felt heavy like this in the first league match of the season, comments the 34-year-old lazy Lahti Tyrväinen to STT.
Striker Juuso Mäenpää your balance points 1+2 and a defender Colby Sissons 0+3, when KalPa beat Kärpät 5–2 in Kuopio. KalPa, in good spirits, has won five of its last six matches.