A cheeky rise from the classic in the women’s floorball finals – Natalia Pitkäkangas leveled the series in the overtime | Sport

The reigning women’s floorball champion TPS had a hard time in the fourth final, where it bitterly lost its lead.

Tampere Classic celebrated a 7–6 victory over TPS in overtime in the 4th final of the floorball women’s F-League and tied the wins in the final series to 2–2. Four mounts are required for the championship.

TPS got a lightning start to the match when Laura Rantanen took the home team into the lead after 18 seconds of the game. Classic quickly cleared the levels, but the powerhouses of TPS’s first chain Jenna Saario and Meri-Helmi Höynälä shouted the home crowd in the opening set.

Classic was already down 1–5 in the second set and 3–6 after the middle of the third set. In the end, Classic became the number one woman in the goal exchange Suvi Hämäläinen with an underpowered goal to 6-6 a minute and a half before the final buzzer.

Classicin became the decider of the match Natalia Longclothwho finished the winning goal for the visitors in the overtime in 71.46.

– Incredible feeling. It feels really great, because I wouldn’t have thought that I would decide the match, Pitkäkangas rejoiced.

– The beginning looked really rough, but at the second set break we decided that now we have to get up and go all out, we have to go all the way.

“We messed up”

TPS was again relying on its first chain. Ketju scored all but one of Turku’s goals. Höynälä and Rantanen, who are comfortable at the top of the points market in the playoffs, succeeded twice.

– We completely messed up the third set. Two sets went well. The ball moved smoothly, and the defense remained compact. We probably started waiting for the end of the game too early, and now it’s incredibly annoying, Höynälä lamented.

Head coach of TPS Aki Vilander had a stomach bug at home on Thursday, and the team was captained by the man who coached the TPS men to the Finnish championship last year Santeri Raatarila.

– We played two sets with high quality, but in the final set we couldn’t catch the ball as we hoped. We also had a couple of good places in the second round, but now this sadly turned into a loss, Raatarila stated.

– The loss does not change the team’s situation in any way. The team will go for a win on Saturday, so let’s move forward with confidence.

The teams will meet on Saturday at Classic’s home field and immediately on Sunday in Turku. TPS has won the previous two women’s floorball championships. The Turku club has also won the two most recent Women’s Cup championships.