Tappara and Pelicans took the first bets for the SM league finals. The semifinal series will continue tomorrow in Kuopio and Oulu.
Tappara and Pelicans started the hockey SM league semifinals with victories. The matches were even in the usual playoff style. Tappara beat KalPa in overtime 3–2 and Pelicans beat Kärpät 2–1.
KalPa, who had already eliminated Ilves, started sharply again in Tampere. Underpowered, KalPa was able to strike back and Benjamin Korhonen the people of Kuopio took the lead after just over ten minutes.
Three goals were seen in the second period. Tappara rose to the levels with superiority. KalPan Hugo Gallet was benched for playing with a broken stick. Tapparan Nick Halloran scored the equalizer with just a few seconds left of the advantage.
Heikki Liedes took Tappara into the lead with superiority, when he took a shot that bounced off the end of the goal into the goal. Tappara’s two overtime goals were KalPa’s first underpowered goals conceded in the spring playoffs.
– It is important to score superiority goals. It can go inside the head if you don’t get them, Tappara defender Valtteri Kemiläinen said.
However, KalPa quickly caught up with the Swedish defender by Anton Karlsson with a shot. Karlsson hasn’t scored a single goal in the regular season for two seasons, but in the playoffs there were two of them last season and now the first one this spring.
There were no goals in the third period, so the decision went to overtime.
Tappara started the extra set strongly, but KalPa got their place when first Olli Juolevi and later Oiva Keskinen took sloppy ices. Tappara cleared the understrength and after that Swedish defender Tobias Ekberg scored the decisive goal in 75:50.
– The game was a bit tentative on both sides. A solid game. There was nothing surprising from KalPa, it was pretty much what they have done before. Kemiläinen stated.
The Pelicans took the opening win
Pelicans made their first appearance in the finals of the Finnish Hockey League when they beat Kärpät in the opening semi-final in Lahti 2–1.
Pelicans won a tight quarter-final series against HIFK 4–3 and after a couple of days off, the going continued strongly again.
However, the visiting team succeeded first. Joonas Kemppainen Kärpät took the lead with superiority after 13 minutes had been played in the opening set.
Pelicans clearly dominated the second period and the award came with superiority when Patrik Carlsson smoothed out a nice pattern at the end.
The decisive hit was scored from a corner Dawn in Jämsen’s time 50.42. Kärpät finally got a good grip on the game after Jämsen’s goal, but failed to tie the game. The match series continues tomorrow in Oulu.
Four wins are required for a place in the finals.
Pelicans – Flies 2–1 (0–1.1–0.1–0)
13.41 0–1 Kemppainen (Koivunen, Antti-Roiko) yv
33.22 1–1 Carlsson (Lasch, Schnarr) yv
50.42 2–1 Jämsen (Horky,Johannesen)
Goalkeepers:
Total 4+ 4+10 = 18
Bear 3+13+ 2 = 18
Tappara – KalPa and 3-2 (0–1.2–1.0–0)
10.48 0-1 Korhonen (Rissanen) av
26.26 1-1 Halloran (Camper, Baptiste) yv
30.24 2-1 Liedes (Halloran, Baptiste) yv
30.55 2-2 Karlsson (Mäenpää, O Kapanen)
75.50 3-2 Ekberg (Savinainen, Camper) acting
Goalkeepers
Heljanko 11+12+ 4+ 5 = 32
Lekkas 10+ 5+ 7+ 2 = 24