Lappeenranta’s SaiPa won their 11th consecutive victory in the hockey league. The team fought for its fifth consecutive one-goal victory.
20:58•Updated 21:22
Red-hot and brimming with self-confidence, SaiPa roared Ville and Mikko Petman’s with the successes of the opening set to a 2–1 away win over Turku Palloseura. The three-point victory was already the tenth in a row for the miracle of the east.
– A very tough game. It’s not easy to play in the lead position. The team was pretty tough, and defended tenaciously. Sometimes we got the necessary long attacks. The goalkeeper played well, otherwise you can’t win here, SaiPan Raimo Helminen inch.
TPS defender Niklas Arell narrowed the score to 1–2 with his first goal of the season in the final set, but tightened his grip on it. Kari Piiroinen made a lot of important saves and stopped 18 TPS shots with SaiPa’s goal.
– A good start, but two goals were conceded due to poor defending, which left half the team paralyzed. There were two floors of people today. (Aarne) The winter road the field was by far our number one, commented the disappointed TPS coach Tommi Miettinen.
The winning record in the actual playing time of the SM league is twelve matches long and it is in the name of TPS as far back as the season 1993–94, i.e. 31 years ago.
SaiPa will face HPK the day after tomorrow, Thursday, in Lappeenranta, and after that, after a week’s break, HPK again on December 5 in Hämeenlinna. Then SaiPa can move on to share the regular season winning streak record in the SM league.
On Saturday, December 7, SaiPa might even have a chance to take the old and hard-to-break record in Kouvola.
Kärpät won 17 league games in a row
The current SM league win record is the streak of 17 consecutive wins made by Kärppie in the 2013-2014 season. There is still a little way to go for SaiPa, who is progressing on a streak of eleven victories.
However, if there is no stopper for yellow and black, yes Raimo Helminen on December 14th, the troops have the opportunity to set aside this achievement and grab even that for themselves on December 18th. In Lahti.
Last season, SaiPa could only manage five three-point wins and a paltry 45 points.
Now the team has played 42 percent of the regular season (25/60) and scored 15 three-point wins and 49 points.
Ilves’ first chain is too much for K-Espo
Ilves’ first team took over when the team from Tampere, which was in eighth place, met Kiekko-Espoo for the first time this season. Jens Lööken (1+1) and Matias Mäntykivin with goals, the home team celebrated a 2–0 victory. Eemeli Finland your sum powers 0+2.
– Really tight and hard fighting game. The desire to defend one’s own head was excellent and that is always the starting point for success. The way in which K-Espoo plays fast and repeats its own things on the ice is admirable, praised Ilves’ coach Tommi Niemelä.
Kiekko-Espo’s three-game winning streak was broken on Tuesday and at the same time its seven-game point streak. For the first time, K-Espoo missed a goal.
In the second period, Ilves successfully challenged K-Espoo’s narrow goal, which was disallowed after a video review. Ville Lajunen the hit was rejected because Jaakko Heikkinen hit in the goalkeeper’s area to Jakub Malek. The clean sheet was the second of the season for the Ilves keeper. That came with 27 saves.
Jyrki Ahon the troops appeared in Tampere with broken wings. Goal-hungry attackers were on the sidelines Peter Quenneville (12 goals) and Janne Hämäläinen (6) and Santeri Virtanen (5). The trio had scored 31 percent of Espoo’s goals this season and hit as many as 43 percent of the winning goals (7/16).
– It was even and a very manly game was played. However, you cannot win without goals. The differences were not very huge, said Aho.
KalPa rose, Pelicans melted
In Kuopio, KalPa rose Andreas Okany with two goals to 2–2 against the Pelicans, and finally in overtime by Matyas Kantner with a drive-through hit for a 3–2 win.
Lars Bryggman (1+1) and Leevi Tukainen were responsible for the full hits of the Lahti residents.
– I am satisfied with the result and the victory, said the KalPa coach, who sounded somewhat disappointed Petri Karjalainen.
– The second set was excellent from us, but we didn’t succeed in scoring with superiority, and KalPa again scored an important goal for them at the end of the set. The end was quite a struggle for survival, the Pelicans’ pilot in charge estimated Juhamatti Yli-Junnila.
Series table (teletext) here
Read also:
The change of power in the SM league indicates a big change, claim Topi Nättinen and Jussi Paasi