Palloseura of Turku and Koovola’s KooKoon tied the series of the 1st playoff round of the hockey SM league to 1-1 and moved the decisions to Thursdays in Pori and Oulu.
Pori Ässät collapsed in the third set and lost their 1–0 lead after two sets. Instead, TPS grabbed their straw card in a forced seam, even though they had time to lose their five-three superiority that lasted for more than a minute.
Puhe’s puck expert Ismo Lehkonen guessed already during the final set that Ässie’s head coach Karri Kivi make rounds after the match.
– In my opinion, it’s a good joke, for which TPS first got a five-three. But the whistle was incredibly bad, from which TPS scored the winning goal a few minutes before the end. In the situation, the TPS player knocked down Ässie Eemil Erholtz TPS guard Lassi Lehtinen on, and from that the second one, updated Lehkonen.
Kivi had a totem face at a short press conference.
– The decision of the match was when the TPS player pushed our player on top of his own goalkeeper, Kivi snorted and apparently held back his emotional storm.
Jonne Tammela finished TPS’s 2–1 winning goal in 56:34 during a questionable freeze.
However, in Lehkonen’s opinion, TPS deservedly included themselves in this series. TPS took the shots in the match 65–29.
– The visitors’ superiority was miserable, while TPS scored two superiority goals. Ässät has emptied his tank in these six sets of consecutive days, as we saw in the third set in Turku.
– If they handle the feedback of one intermission day well, then we will see a great spectacle on Thursday in Pori. Aces get a huge boost for the next game from the home crowd. This series will not be decided by the goalkeeper game, continued Lehkonen.
“Taking care of the little things was lacking”
Playing with flies still aroused wonder. KooKoo raised their level of play and beat the Oulu team 4–1, leveling the series at 1–1.
– Today, Kärpät lagged behind KooKoo in terms of work, skating power, fighting play, loose pucks and goal edge play. Taking care of small things, which should be completely clear to the players, was lacking, wondered Lehkonen.
The puck expert still considers Kärpp to be a mystery team.
– The mental lock is somehow on. You have to get the team excited. Will we see a new kind of Kärpät on Thursday? You don’t really know that, thought Lehkonen.
Scored the third goal for KooKoo Teemu Rautiainen considered KooKoo’s performance to be an intact 60 minutes.
– In the first game in Oulu, we were at the bottom of the opening set, but since then things have improved, the engine has started and the playing has been on the upswing. We understand how top team Kärpät is, and sometimes we have to defend and put up with it. We still need more Napsu on Thursday, estimates Rautiainen.