HIFK won HPK and tied with SaiPa.
On Thursday, Porin Ässät won the regular season match of the Hockey League with the goals of Kiekko-Espoo 3–1 and got a tasty revenge from the previous meeting between the teams. Ässat lost in November in Espoo with goals 0–7, but recovered on Boxing Day to a well-deserved victory after an early comeback goal.
– We got into the game a little better than last time, Ässie’s attacking virtuoso Jan-Mikael Järvinen smiled in an MTV television interview.
– It was a good start, we got places and the driver was there.
Ville Lajunen took home team Kiekko-Espoo into the lead in the opening set, but Järvinen passed quickly I flew to Hämeenahon leveling. Dylan Fabre took the guests from Pori to a 2-1 lead in the last minute of the opening set. In the second round Patrik Juhola suti from the goal-scoring hassle the final readings.
Järvinen got the puck into the goal once, but the full hit was rejected.
– They said that (Emil) Erholtz pushed the goalkeeper, Järvinen opened the judges’ decision to disallow the goal.
The win was Ässi’s third in a row and improved the position of the team from Pori in the upper middle class of the series. Ässät rose from seventh place to fifth place and one point behind Kiekko-Espoo in fourth place.
In the second league match on Boxing Day, HIFK beat HPK in extra time 4–3 and tied with Lappeenranta’s SaiPa, who held the top spot.