Lukko, who was on the verge of a must-win, fought through his harsh frostbite with a 2-1 home win over HIFK and postponed the decision to Monday in Helsinki.
– Quality understrength from Luko today, goalkeeper by Artem Zagidulin top game and 44 booths and the team’s comprehensive defensive battle were the keys to victory for the players from Rauma, summed up Puhee’s puck expert Top Nättinen the match.
HIFK took the shots in the match by as many as 79-43, but collapsed into ineffectiveness. One goal was not enough.
– The parts and momentum have turned in this series. HIFK was just a passenger today, the spirit needs to be dug up again, Nättinen estimates.
In the ice hockey SM league, a 0–3 loss situation has only risen to a 4–3 win once. This happened in 2011, when Espoon Blues, after three losses, rose from the KalPa semi-final series to the final with a 4–3 win.
Lukko had wasted all 27 superiority minutes of the IFK series before Saturday, but finally got the special situation taps open, when the center of the four chain Harri Kainulainen shot the HIFK defender Ilari Melartin from the legs with a 1–0 goal advantage in 7:21. The goal came from a direct attack and was not a typical special situation goal.
Defender Tarmo Reunanen shouted the Romanian crowd only a minute later, rolling the puck into the net with a surprising air wave.
– 360 degree spin-o-rama in the corner, HIFK defender by Johan Motin figuratively broke my ankles in the situation and after that the puck flew into the goal!
– However, it is a defender who does such a performance in a knife-to-throat match. Wasteful! A smart boost for your own team, pulls you into silence, Puhee’s puck expert Top Nättinen snorted.
In social media, Reunanen’s goal was described as, for example, profane, dirty and spring’s finest paint.
Lock coach Marko Virtanen the forehead was deaf, even though the team was leading 2–0. The reason for the gloom was the ramblings of the Romans about the cold. Lukko gave the opponent a two-man special situation for more than a minute and took six of the little two by the start of the second period.
Blocked no less than 22 pucks in the opening set Artem Zagidul finally had to surrender when Sebastian Dyk overpowered HIFK with the fifth yv hit of the series, narrowing the game to 1–2 in 21:59. The playoff hit was the second of the season for the hardworking Swedish striker, before that he had hit in the regular season on November 1st.
In the second and third sets, Luko would have had his own places to put the final nail in the game, even with superior forces, but the special situations were wasted. Out of fifteen IFK series superiority, Lukko has achieved only one complete hit, the 7 percent superiority of the Raumen is still a nightmare for Virtanen’s troops.
Lukko created the best places with a level playing field. Julius Mattila failed to drive through when Dyk was able to interfere from behind with a “wolf hand” without being caught. Reunanen, who was delighted with Ilmaveivi, was close to the second goal, but his fiery shot “just” hit the top tube in the 46th minute.
HIFK can also look strictly in the direction of the superior men at the end of the game, because the team got, among other things, five three-point superiority in the match, and got only one yv goal out of Luko’s nine minor penalties.
KalPa put the Pelicans in the washing machine
Pelicans, who were looking for a decisive victory in the quarterfinals, got the opening goal in Kuopio, but the team then got into quite a washing machine in KalPa in the opening set. Ben Blood shot the visitors to a 1–0 lead in the eighth minute of the game.
– Good start to the game, but then a few freezes, and the guy got on top of the game hard. The opponent was clearly better after that. We weren’t at the level today to take a place in the semi-finals. Keep improving, and a lot, said the Pelicans captain Miika Roine their own.
After the setback, the effective KalPa scored three hits in just under seven minutes and turned the game around – deservedly so, as KalPa took the shots in the opening set 23–8 and the starts 14–6.
30-year-old Swedish striker from Kuopio Max Görtz was responsible for the 1–1 hit and the 3–1 lead. The center of the quad chain Jaakko Lantta completed the first playoffs hit of his career when he scored the 2–1 goal.
KalPa increased its lead to 4-1 in the last second of the second period, when the defender Lasse Lappalainen the shot surprised Patrik Bartos too to the delight of the crowd, mainly 5300 spectators.
– Real locker room paint. An important goal for KalPa in terms of winning the match. Lappalainen shot at the rotating puck, it was such a “lingering itch”. Classically speaking, a failed shot is always the best shot, reminded puck expert Nättinen.
– KalPa’s Swedish goalkeeper Robin With Rahm had only three saves in two sets. The guests have been confusingly anemic today, updated Nättinen.
In the third set, the Pelicans changed Jasper Patrikainen to the goal in place of Bartosak. KalPa’s Swedish defender Anton Karlsson sealed the final numbers at 5-1 in the 50th minute. He had played the previous 54 games of the season without a hit.
Quarterfinals of the Ice Hockey Championship League:
Lock – HIFK 2-1 (2-0.0-1.0-0)
07.21 1-0 Kainulainen (Reunanen, Nyman) yv
08.11 2-0 Reunanen (Hakulinen, Mattila)
21.59 2-1 Dyk (Melart, Hirvonen) yv
Goalkeepers Audience: 4053
Zagidul’s 21+11+12 = 44
Kill 7+ 9+ 3 = 19
Wins 2-3
KalPa – Pelicans 5-1 (3-1,1-0,1-0)
08.00 0-1 Blood (A Jämsen, Haatanen)
08.54 1-1 Görtz (Rissanen) yv
14.41 2-1 Lantta (Kantola, Riekkinen)
15.32 3-1 Görtz (Mäenpää, Mattila)
39.59 4-1 Lappalainen (Räsänen, Rahm) yv
50.11 5-1 Karlsson (Mäenpää, Görtz)
Goalkeepers Audience: 5300
Rahm 2+ 1+ 7 = 10
Bartosak 10+ 5+ 0 = 15 -> 40.00
Patrikainen 0+ 0+ 6 = 6
Wins 3-3
Ice