Iiro Pakarinen stretched his scoring streak to seven matches already. Lock keeper John Lethemon’s save impressed as the team from Romania won 4–1.
Iiro Pakarinen incomprehensible goal streak continued on Saturday in the hockey SM league, when he scored a hat trick in the net of his parent club KalPa.
Savolainen’s second hat trick of the season sent the game into overtime, where Ronald Knott gave HIFK an overtime victory with goals 4–3.
Pakarinen scored his 20th goal of the season already in the opening set and stretched his scoring streak to seven matches. He scored the next goal in the second set with an understrength and a hat trick to tie the game 3–3 in the final set.
With 22 goals, Pakarinen would have already finished seventh, fourth and fifth in the goal exchange in three previous league seasons. However, he has only played 19 games after tonight, or less than a third of the entire season.
Pakarinen’s goal rate per match is already faster than the legendary one Arto Javanainen. He scored a record 47 goals in 44 matches in the 1987–88 season. Javanainen scored 1.07 goals per match, while Pakarinen is at the pace of 1.16 goals.
Sports expert Top Nättinen according to, we can already talk about breaking the Javanese record. However, he does not believe that Pakarinen will succeed in breaking the record.
– The momentum is such that Pakarinen can break it and even during 44 games. If you look at history, however, the pace slows down and playing HIFK can be a hassle. 40 goals will definitely be broken. I don’t think Javanese’s record, however, Nättinen stated at the Ice Hockey Tour.
Lethemon’s peak stretch changed direction
Rauman Lukko put on a wild show in the final set, when it scored four goals in just over three minutes in Pori Ässie’s net and won 4–1.
Aces had a great start to the match I flew to Hämeenahon on the finish line. In the second set, the people of Pori were already taking a 2–0 lead when Lukko keeper John Lethemon hurled the puck from the middle zone behind his back. However, the US goalkeeper survived with a scare, as the hit was rejected as offside.
In the final set, Lethemon had already recovered from his shock. He pulled off the most spectacular save of the season so far when he made the save Kasperi Ojantakanen throwing himself to the side from the top position of the shot.
Lukko was energized by this and scored four goals in three and a half minutes. Antti Saarela started and ended the Romanian paint factory. Jakob Stenqvist and Karson Kuhlman were also successful in finishing.
Kärpät broke his losing streak
Oulu Kärpät broke its three-game losing streak when it defeated KooKoo 3–2.
Kärpät has relied on its superstar goals, but this time there were also successes from the lower chains. Sisu Yliniemi scored the opening goal of his league career and scored 1+1. His chain mate Marko Anttila caught a similar score.
Kouvola also saw a fierce situation when KooKoo scored the first goal Riley Sawchuk tackled by Kärppien Arttu Paasoa on. After a video review, Sawchuk was finally sent off.
Despite the victory, Kärpät is far from the top in the regular season, in ninth place.
Sport bulled Tapparaa
Vaasan Sport kept Tampere Tappara under control and fought to a two-goal level and took the game to the winning goal contest. However, Tappara took the win by Nicholas Halloran with a score of 3–2.
Tappara is eight points away from league leader HIFK, but has played three matches less than the Helsinki team.
In the battle at the tail end of the series, JYP also took a 2–1 victory against the Pelicans in the winning goal race Valtteri Ojantakanen with a solution. In Hämeenlinna, on the other hand, HPK was better than Turku Palloseura by goals 2–0.