Last weekend’s double losses to HIFK pushed Oulu Kärpät into a deep hole, from which it will be difficult to get out. “Half Finland’s team” has lost four of its last five matches.
– The results have been bad for us, and in fact we were bad in both HIFK games. If you think that before the last 15 games we were second in the fitness scale, the little one’s performance has dropped. Today I saw a lot of good things about us and we are still able to develop our playing towards Saturday, stated the Kärppie head coach Lauri Marjamäki.
Kärppi’s playful nature doesn’t want to follow the coach at the moment.
– We’ve had a lot of all kinds throughout the season. Actually, 20 games before the end of the regular season, we turned the course and started focusing on the matter itself and winning games. There is still a little bit of a challenge there, which can sometimes be seen in weak moments. We know what’s causing it, and we’ve been improving it all the time. It has not been made visible yet.
Ilves, craving a win in the regular season, was clearly better than the teams in every area on Wednesday in Oulu. The pain of the flies was visible from the beginning, right up to the pipe shelves of the Raksila ice rink. Under the lynx’s coat, Kärpät couldn’t get into organized attacks.
– Today Ilves showed where that bar is, and what the best top team is showing. Today we were able to play 0-0 against such a quality opponent, and yet we were the winning side. We were involved for forty minutes, but still couldn’t keep up. The third set was great from us again, Marjamäki summed up the overtime loss.
Lehkonen: Ives’ dominance is a surprise to me
Puheen’s Ice Hockey tour expert Ismo Lehkonen already announced after the 0-0 situation after the opening set that “does Kärpät even believe in his own possibilities?”.
In the second set, Ilves moved Eetu Päkkilän and by Filip Westerlund with goals for a 2–0 run away.
– For me, Ilves’ dominance is a surprise. Shots after two periods for the guests 52–20. Ilves constantly plays through the Kärppie’s defense, Lehkonen marveled at the Tampere’s superiority in the field game.
Kärpi had a few places of their own to score, but the big picture was completely under Ilves’ control.
– At this point in the season, Kärpi shouldn’t have any goal chances coming in the second wave. Ilves’ second goal was a good example of this. When the player (Tuukka Tieksola) can’t skate down, then can’t, Lehkonen was spinning his head in Pasila’s radio studio.
Kärppi’s scribble phase in Marjamäki’s memory: “Shows character”
The puck expert did not like the general appearance of the players from Oulu after two sets.
– The players turn their backs on the situations and skate to the change gracefully.
In the third set, Kärpät faithfully developed a decent kiri. Cody Kunyk struck with a handsome solo and will reduction as if out of nowhere into a situation of 1–2. When playing without a goalkeeper, Kärpät rose Peter Tiivolan with a goal to make it 2–2 just 11 seconds before the end of regular time.
In the end, the extra point deservedly went to Ilves, when Les Lancaster finished the 3–2 hit in extra time with superiority in 64.00. The guests took the shots in the match 71–40.
– Leevi Meriläinen denied Kärpi one point today, tied the match Lehkonen.
Lauri Marjamäki praised the character of his protégés and wondered aloud how many times the team has come from behind in a match to draw level.
– This says a lot about the team. There’s potential there. Believe it or not, there’s been a lot of thought put into that third-period scrimmage. Everyone wants to play it right from the first shift.
Ville Leskinen’s popcorn command speaks volumes
The second best scorer of the Kärppis Ville Leskinen did not play in the top game against Ilves. In the current season, Leskinen collected 14+22=36 points comment today on Iltalehte (you will switch to another service)that he is not injured.
Why don’t you play on Wednesday?
– I don’t decide that matter. I have nothing else to say about this, stated Leskinen to Iltalehti.
There has been speculation in the media that Leskinen’s stand command would be related to when he commented on Saturday For Kaleva (you switch to another service) his team’s way of playing. Among other things, Leskinen said that “everything seems slow if you have to think about too many things on the field”.
Marjamäki was asked about Kärpät on Monday of the Petopodi podcast (you will switch to another service) in an interview about the view that the players would not have enough freedom in the Kärppie game. Marjamäki dismissed it as “complete nonsense”.
On Wednesday, Urheilu asked Marjamäki why the team’s key player Leskinen does not fit into the playing lineup.
– Two weeks ago Ville was actually injured all week, and last week we had a week of three games. Maybe it was my fault and I should have given training days, but when it was three games to four games, Ville wasn’t fit to play yet.
– Of course I wanted to play with him, but now I took a bit of a risk. Wasn’t in that shock yet. I believe that when Ville gets a good training week, he will be in full swing, because we need the best from Leski, stressed Marjamäki.
SM League League table from this link.
Wednesday’s SM league round:
JYP–KooKoo 3–1 (1–0, 1–1, 1–0)
Kärpät–Ilves and 2–3 (0–0, 0–2, 2–0, 0–1)
SaiPa–HIFK vl. 3–4 (1–1, 2–1, 0–1, 0–0, 0–1)
Sport–Tappara 1–4 (1–0, 0–3, 0–1)
Aces–Pelicans and. 2–3 (1–1, 1–0, 0–1, 0–1)