The second meeting between Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets in Tampere Arena on Saturday 5.11. at 8 p.m. Live broadcast on TV2, Areena and app starting at 7:45 p.m.
There was no lack of entertainment value in the first match between Colorado and Columbus in Tampere. The reigning champion twisted Jarmo Kekäläinen you finally protected tatami, but not easily. Colorado once lost a three-goal lead in a nine-goal game, but eventually regained the same lead.
After the match, the moods on the edge of the teams’ dressing rooms and in the interview room piled up in the corner of the press room varied greatly.
The mood of Columbus was best expressed by the one who played a good match Patrick Laine, whose performances from the match were recorded as 1+1. The attacker from Tampere played a good match in front of his home crowd, but the fourth consecutive defeat seemed to take a toll on the attacker, who appeared in front of the media in a really angry mood.
– The bad taste remained, Laine snorted.
– Zero points were left in the hand and that’s the only thing that matters. It doesn’t matter if I score five points if we lose, Laine continued.
The team’s head coach stepped in front of the media just as tensely Brad Larsen, who by no means has yet gotten his team’s game to such a level that would allow them to play in the spring playoffs. For example, the head coach didn’t praise Laine more than that, even though the media representatives offered him the opportunity on a couple of occasions.
– We played well and he (Laine) was also quite good, but at the same time the ice he took in the third period was poorly timed. First, we don’t score a goal with superiority ourselves, and right during his cooldown, Colorado scored the winning goal. We can’t take that amount of ice, Larsen bewitched the five taken ice.
Larsen was also not willing to comment on why Laine, known for his hard shot, played much more dominantly on the right side as a playmaker, unlike normal. Usually Laine’s office is on the left side at the launcher. In the match, Columbus lost, among other things, two four-minute power plays.
– I won’t go into the reasons why he played there, but we play him on both sides, Larsen said.
Mikko, Mikko, Mikko!
For Colorado, all attention was focused on one man: Mikko Rantaseen. At the beginning of the match, Rantanen, who recorded three goals and four power points, was second in the crowd’s attention to Lainee, who was playing in front of his home crowd, but after the hat trick, the situation was different, when the home crowd started singing Mikko Rantanen’s name in the chorus.
The man from Turku was cheered in Tampere.
– I loved that song, it was really sweet. The guys laughed on the bench and Mikko was certainly happy about it, the Colorado pilot Jared Bednar smiled.
Along the same lines, there was a superstar who operated next to Rantanen as usual Nathan MacKinnon.
– The whole bench enjoyed that story and the guys wished Miko a hat trick. He already had a couple of places before and finally it worked out, it was really cool. It would be nice to play in my own hometown one day when the audience shows their popularity like that, MacKinnon felt.
The strength of Rantanen, who succeeded once in the second set and twice in the third set, was also humbly acknowledged by the opponent’s camp.
– Mikko is a really high-quality player, skilled, physical and always dangerous. But it’s not just about him, MacKinnon is also quite good next to it. It’s clear that we can’t accept these guys with such amounts of ice, Larsen said.
– As a person and a friend, I am of course happy for Miko, but not as a hockey player, Patrik Laine stated.
From the Colorado camp, the match event in general was unhindered. The sold-out arena enjoyed the game well and in the third set was eager to circulate even a wave in the hall.
– This was a great audience and event in every way, starting with the national anthems. During the game, the fans participated in the game nicely and at the end we even got Mikko Rantanen to sing, Bednar hummed with satisfaction.
The press conference after the match rose to completely new heights when one of the media representatives offered Rantanen a place alongside Laine as the greatest Finnish hockey star of all time.
– I would say that there have been quite a lot of other good players in this country in their time, a confused Rantanen formulated.
Adequate, not good
Even on the Colorado side, they still didn’t set up a huge victory party. The team lost a three-goal lead already in the second match in a row, and its performance after a strong opening set was not particularly high-quality, although it turned the match in its favor in the end.
Playing in the leading position in particular spoke volumes.
– I don’t think it’s that difficult for us. A couple of unlucky plays and a few bad bounces. There is no reason to panic, but there are still puck losses that we can eliminate, MacKinnon acknowledged.
Head coach Bednar didn’t let his own down, even though the team won.
– I liked the work, but we still couldn’t put together an intact 60-minute show. We gave way too many high-quality goal chances from a good sector. Our top players got the job done in the end, but I want to see a complete intact game from us tomorrow.
Rantanen also reminded of the importance of defensive play.
– It was not as good as it should have been. We can do better and we have to cut the ice. Even if they don’t result in goals, the rhythm of the game suffers, the TPS coach instructed his own for Saturday’s second encounter.
Colorado Avalanche:
Mikko Rantanen 3+1
Nathan MacKinnon 0+4
Cale Makar 1+1
Devon Toews 0+2
Logan O’Connor 1+0
JT Compher 1+0
Evan Rodrigues 0+1
Erik Johnson 0+1
Samuel Girard 0+1
Alex Newhook 0+1
Columbus Blue Jackets:
Patrik Laine 1+1
Jakuc Voracek 1+0
Sean Kuraly 1+0
Boone Jenner 0+1
Zach Werenski 0+1
Johnny Gaudreau 0+1
Liam Foudy 0+1
Eric Robinson 0+1