Piloted to the finals of the Tappara hockey SM league Jussi Tapola lavishly praised the opponent HIFK, but admitted that the Tampere team benefited from the match schedule. Tapola also teased the Ilves–Pelicans series at the press conference after the fifth semi-final match.
– I think the series was, above all, tough and fair. If you think about both teams and the second series of matches, what is being talked about there: there are filmings, referee issues and more. In this series, it has not been talked about once, Tapola began his speech.
– The series has been played really hard physically, but not a single player was left lying down. In that sense, this has been a tough and fair series, where two top teams play against each other.
In his speech, Tapola refers to the situations seen in the Ilves–Pelicans series, where there have also been incidents of filming. Ilves head coach Antti Pennanen spoke, for example, after the second match played in Lahti about Ilves’ values and how the players fight until the end and want to stay upright. Filming has been talked about in the series anyway.
Tapola emphasized to MTV (you will switch to another service)that over-emphasized gestures and filming come to the fore in Sweden and Switzerland, for example, in places other than Twitter, but in Finland they have not yet been banned or fined.
– I understand that if the other person overemphasizes and gets left out, they don’t want to come second in that matter. After all, it’s also fucked up, Tapola charged and demanded that a higher authority intervene in the matter.
According to Tapola, if similar situations are seen in the finals, they should be brought up.
– Nothing but players in front of the media, who you can ask, what the hell are you doing there. That can help, Tapola suggested.
“Doesn’t belong in hockey”
The series between Tappara and HIFK exceptionally started with two away matches in Helsinki due to the arena concerts in Tampere. According to Tapola, Tappara benefited from the situation.
– This series was by no means 4-1 in terms of gameplay. We certainly benefited from the match schedule. When we started two away games and won the second one, it was easy to come home.
– It’s not part of hockey that the rhythm changes because of the arenas. Apologies to HIFK for that. I hope that this will not happen again and that the arenas will be booked in the right way.
Tapola also reminded how HIFK rose from its difficult situation in the fall to the semi-finals. He raised HIFK even to the top teams in Europe this season.
– We were at the limit. If you compare HIFK to the top European teams, I definitely count HIFK as one of them. It was hard all the time. I see that the special situations turned the series in our favor, Tapola commented to Urheilu.
According to Tapola, the first two matches of the series were a bad game from Tappara. The team attacked poorly and could not create continuations.
– The three-day break gave me time to go through the game. Above all, we improved. We had a terrible will, but we treated and adjusted. We got it on track and the home games were solid execution.
One passing game for HIFK
Head coach of HIFK Ville Peltonen on the other hand, he praised the attitude of the last game.
– A very tight game. In a way, maybe that special situation somehow solved this game. We shouldn’t have needed improvement, Peltonen regretted.
From Peltose, it seems that HIFK turned over all stones and gave everything on the field.
– Yes, we feel that way. Simply put, it’s a tough place. Didn’t really crack it. Tappara defended very well and of course also attacked.
– We missed one game a bit, which is unforgivable. It certainly turned the series around a bit.
Tappara–HIFK 2–1 (1–0, 1–1, 0–0)
15.41 1–0 Puhakka (Matushkin)
20.37 2-0 Merelä (Kemiläinen, Lehterä)
39.19 2–1 Kaskimäki (Paajanen, Åsten)
Goalkeepers
Heljanko 9+10+10=29
Tapone 7+6+5=18
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Tappara wins 4–1 in the final.