From Kiekko-Espoo, there is a little trouble for the reigning league champion Tappara.
Kiekko-Espoo rose from a losing position to a 2–1 win against Tappara Santeri Virtanen and Janne Hämäläinen with superiority goals. Tappara’s Golden Helmet Petteri Puhakka sat on the ice at the time of Espoo’s winning goal.
Series champion Tappara led the match until the 38th minute, but the hard-working and energetic Kiekko-Espoo emerged from a small hole in Tampere in front of 5,459 spectators.
– A balanced game from us, where we were able to raise the level from the first set. We succeeded in preparing for the match and a powerful superiority sealed our victory. We were aware that the opponent is in quite a match jam, Kiekko-Espoo’s coach Jyrki Aho admitted.
Juha Metsola had to miss Tappara’s goal 32 times, while the 18-year-old goalkeeper promise of K-Espoo, who is fighting off a brilliant season Petteri Rimpinen made it with less – 22 kuds.
Kiekko-Espoo, advancing in a handsome eight-match point streak, passed Ilves in the series, rising to fourth – one point behind Tappara.
Tappara’s third game in four days
For Tappara, the match was already the third in four days, while K-Espoo had played for less than a week. A different game plan was visible in Monday’s game, at least in Tappara’s laziness and cold sensitivity in the second and third periods.
Rivaled the home team’s only hit Benjamin Rautiainen19, was the joy of the people of Tampere. The young attacker has collected a nice score of 3+6=9 in 14 matches. In the last eight games, he has only been hit once.
K-Espoo defeated Tappara already for the second time this season, in the first meeting Tappara lost 5-3 ten days ago.
On Monday, Tappara had their last home game before a three-week home break and six consecutive away matches in Liiga. This week, Tappara will face KooKoo on Friday and Sport on Saturday.
K-Espoo will play two more home games this week, where they will face Luko on Wednesday and HPK on Friday.