HIFK continued its strong momentum in the Women’s Hockey League when it claimed a 3–2 victory over Kuortane on Sunday. With the win, the team from Helsinki kept their top spot in the series, which they stole on Saturday in the meeting between the top teams from KalPa.
Both teams finished the regular season with 93 points, but the goal difference of the Helsinki team was eight goals better.
It was not easy for them to reach the top of the league on Sunday, as Kuortane, who is brimming with future promises in Finnish hockey, still led the match 2–1 going into the final set.
Sanni Vanhanen and Emilia Vesa however, lifted HIFK from a losing position to a 3–2 win. The Helsinki team’s opening goal was scored by the winner of the points exchange in the regular season Michaela Pejzlova. The Czech talent has produced 32+50=82 in the 31 matches he has played.
KalPa, who finished second in the series, also had to do a full night’s work in front of the points. In the end, Ilves fell 2–1 Jenna Kaila and Johanna Juutilainen with hits.
Even before the month-long Christmas break, KalPa was in a terrible mood. The people of Kuopio led the series with a ten point difference to HIFK. The people of Kuopio experienced their only loss in December as a guest of Hämeenlinna. Even in this case, HPK took the victory only after the winning goal contest 4–3.
However, the last few weeks have been difficult for the people of Kuopio. On January 22, KalPa lost its number one striker Elisa Holopainen for the rest of the season. KalPa also lost that game to HPK. Since then, the team from Kuopio has also experienced defeat against all top teams: twice to HIFK and once to Kiekko-Espo.
Saturday’s 0–3 loss to HIFK dropped KalPa to second place in the series.
– If you want to win something, you have to beat all the teams. In the finals, it doesn’t matter whether the place is first or second. However, we start the playoffs with good setups, Juutilainen acknowledged after Saturday’s match.
Juutilainen admitted on Saturday after the HIFK loss that Holopainen’s absence has affected the Kuopio team’s game.
– Of course it is, when the chains are renewed… Elisa has been such a big part of the team, scored a lot of points. One can almost speak for it. It should be fixed somehow.
Although Holopainen had to watch the last month’s games from the sidelines, he eventually finished second in the regular season points market. The KalPa forward scored 41+34=75 in the 28 matches he played.
HIFK is chasing its first championship in history
Kiekko-Espoo, which dominated the Ice Hockey Women’s League in the 2000s, has won the championship every spring since 2019 (the final series was not played in the corona spring of 2020), but like KalPa, its momentum has also been declining this year as the playoffs approach.
On the final weekend of the regular season, Espoo lost both their matches. On Sunday, HPK was stronger with a score of 2–0, and on Saturday, Ilves smoked the Espoos by no less than 7–1. Despite that, the people of Espoo kept their third place in the regular season and will face Kuortanen in the quarterfinals.
HIFK and KalPa are fighting for the first Women’s League championships in their history. Last spring, HIFK put Kiekko-Espoo in a tight spot, but the Espoo team won the fifth decisive final on their home court 8–3. The spring before that, the people from Espoo beat KalPa in the fourth final match.
The project of HIFK, which is aiming for its first championship this season, can be described as an upward trend. Helsinki IFK was one of the ten participating teams when the Women’s League was founded in 1982. In 1988 and 1989, the team even finished in bronze, until women’s representation in the club ended.
The operation was brought back to life in the latter half of the 2010s. Officially, “Stadin Gimmat” started its journey from Mestis in the 2018-2019 season. The core of the team also consisted of players from HIFK’s partner club Red Wings, who also played in Mestis.
The club was already promoted to the Women’s League at the end of its first Mestis season. In the 2019–2020 season, it still finished seventh, but the next result was already bronze medals – and last season, silver. Now only the championship is good for the team.
– From the beginning of the season, we have said out loud that the championship is our only goal of the season. We have worked for that, HIFK national team striker Julia Liikala your sum.
Liikala finished third in the points market of the regular season. He hit 28+38=66 in the 30 matches he played. The eight most effective players in the point exchange all came from either KalPa or HIFK. Of the other teams’ players, only HPK’s Julia Mateikova (15+28=43) and Kiekko-Espoon Anni-Elina Montonen (21+21=42) were among the ten most effective.
HIFK will face Kärpät and KalPa in the quarter-finals, on the other hand, TPS. Kiekko-Espoo will therefore meet Kuortanene and HPK and Ilves will meet in the fourth quarter-final pair. The semi-finals start next Saturday.
Ninth-placed Lukko and tenth-placed RoKi will play a double qualifying series with the two best teams of the Women’s Mestis, and the two best teams from this series will play in the Women’s League next season.
You can see the final standings at this link.
The quarterfinals of the Ice Hockey Women’s League start on Saturday, February 25. The Women’s League playoffs are played on a best-of-five system, only the bronze medal match is one-legged.
Semi-final pairings:
Kiekko-Espoo–Kuortane
HPK–Ilves
HIFK–Kärpät
KalPa–TPS