The five-year project got a dramatic championship seal – HIFK scored the winning goal in the last minute

Helsinki IFK, playing its fourth season in the women’s premier league, has won its first league championship.

Helsinki IFK withstood the pressure of the pre-favorite and won the Finnish women’s ice hockey championship. In the final series, HIFK beat Kiekko-Espoo directly 3–0. HIFK was superior this season. Although it won the regular season by goal difference over KalPa, it did not lose a single match in the playoffs.

In the final matches, HIFK beat long-time winners Kiekko-Espoo 9–2 in the first match, 4–0 in the second match and 3–2 in the third match after dramatic stages.

Kiekko-Espoo put the IFK goalkeeper Kia Lahtinen to work right from the first minutes of the match and Lahtinen kept his team upright. The pressure produced results in 16:01, when Lisette Taks after the start, drove brazenly to IFK’s goal and floated the puck into the goal from Lahtinen’s circle. The hit was still checked on video, but the result did not change. HIFK was able to level up at the end of the set, when it transferred the pressure to Kiekko-Espoo’s end with superiority. The puck bounced on the goal line after half a minute, but went into the goal a good minute later, when Sanni Vanhanen the bet sank Tiia Pajarinen behind the back from zero angle.

In the second period, after barely seven minutes of play, it looked like IFK would strike, because Johanna Kemppainen the shot seemed to hit the target. However, the video review showed that the puck only hit the post. Kiekko-Espoo wore down the players with ice and after the third advantage of the set, HIFK was able to attack well. Julia Liikala saw perfectly the target gun Michaela Pejzlovanwhose knuckle sank into the top corner.

The end of the third period was full of events. The people of Espoo increased their pace and had several scoring opportunities. However, Kiekko-Espo had no luck and in addition, both Kiia Lahtinen and the IFK defense held out. In the semi-finals and quarter-finals, the people of Espoo were able to rise from a losing position to overtime and victory on several occasions. Even against IFK, Kiekko-Espoo leveled up when Emmi Rakkolainen shot the puck into the goal from almost zero angle.

However, the joy of the people of Espoo only lasted for less than a minute, because the IFK striker Clara Rozier managed to play the puck from the zero corner in front of the Espoo team’s goal and Sanni Vanhanen the puck crashed into the goal. The situation was still reviewed on video, but the goal was accepted.

The news is updated.