Tappara fought for a place in the CHL finals – “Heljanko kept our dream alive”
In the 2nd semi-final, Tappara beat Zug 3–2 away from home and advanced to the hockey CHL final against Luulaja with a total of 5–2 goals. The CHL final place is Tappara’s second in a row.
Patrik Virta, Petteri Puhakka and Jori Lehterä scored the goals for Tappara. The last two resulted in an empty net.
Christian Heljanko blocked 38 shots, being the Tampere’s number one hero.
– It was quite a pressure cooker. There hasn’t been a washing machine like that where we were now. Heljanko kept our dream alive, a great performance. Without him, I don’t know where we would be today, Casimir Jürgens, who worked for Tappara’s back lines for more than 21 minutes, praised his goalkeeper.
Tappara’s coach Jussi Tapola was happy about his team’s tenacity, but reminded that there is still work ahead. We must be able to improve our attacking play as a team.
The Swedish referees Tobias Björk and Mikael Nord felt that Zug did not find a single action worthy of a suspension in the match. Instead, the Finnish club accumulated four small losses, two of which came in the final moments of the game.
– I don’t want to go out and comment on the referee’s line. You always just have to adapt to it. Of course, it’s a bit surprising that he (Tappara) didn’t have any superiority, and the guy still got four, said Jürgens.
The final match will be played on February 18.
There are six Finns in the crew of the finalist Luleå; Leo Komarov, Joonas Rask, Juhani Tyrväinen, Julius Honka, Tomi Sallinen and Olli Nikupeteri.
JYP is the only Finnish team that won the CHL. The feat was seen in 2018.