Mikkeli’s Jukurit rose to second place in the Finnish Championships, between Tampere teams. The fierce battle for the playoffs intensified in both the straight seats and the 1st round.
19.3. 20:12 • Updated March 19th. 21:00
In the men’s hockey league, the battle for positions in the playoffs is accelerating as the spring days lengthen. Saturday night’s five-match round gave the point average comparison another boost.
You will find tables comparing point averages at the end of this story.
The surprise of the league season, Mikkelin Jukurit, took his ninth victory in his last eleven games by beating HIFK by 4–0 in his home pitch and was already second in the series. For HIFK, the loss was the third in a row and meant that the people of Helsinki lost their fourth place in the standings and fell fifth behind TPS in the standings.
– The jurors had a better pile of winning things. No wonder they have about a lot of points, HIFK pilot Ville Peltonen said.
Libor Zabransky, Pekka Jormakka and Petrus Palmu the goals of the people of Mikkeli were fired. Palmu managed to escape alone as HIFK sought a reduction without a goalkeeper and still stabbed the last goal of the match three seconds before the end.
HPK’s third consecutive loss, an important victory for Ilves
HPK lost their third consecutive match when SaiPa earned important series points from Hämeenlinna with a 2–1 victory. HPK is still stuck in sixth place in the regular season, but KooKoo breathes into his neck just one series point away. The people of Kouvola took an important 2–1 victory over the Pelicans. KooKoo is now in seventh place, while the people of Lahti are in tenth place in the league.
The three of a kind Ilves took an important victory over KalPa when the old war horse Petri Kontiola cut off overtime at 64.22. KalPa lost the 2-0 lead. The defeat was a severe blow to the Kuopio players’ playoff aspirations, although it managed to capture an important point from the fight.
The victory of Tappara’s regular season is not yet certain
After a phased match, the top of the series Tappara twisted to a 5–4 extra time victory from Luko in Rauma. Tappara was caught up in victory at the end of the third round, however Scott Pooley leveled to 4-4 in 57.20 and took the game on overtime. Returned from Tampere to Tampere Veli-Matti Savinainen scored two goals and broke the limit of one hundred goals in the regular season of the Finnish Champions League.
– There’s been no problem here. There have been and will be more places. It was great for the goals to be done, it was a high-level game and the world-class mood was up to the fans, Savinainen said.
Tappara still leads the series, but both Jukurit and Ilves can still get past Tappara.
See the graphs below to see which point average each team can end up at best or at worst. The dark blue color reflects a possible rise. Red color again possible fall.
In the graphics below, the same thing expressed in numbers: in numbers, the current Score Average for each team, the theoretically highest Score Average, and the theoretically lowest Score Average.
Jumbo final for Ace
In the jumbo finals, the Aces took a 2-1 win over Sport after the shootout. Samuli Aaltonen shot the Aces to the lead in 17.38, and the next goal could be expected in almost 40 minutes until Turo Asplund leveled the game just under four minutes before the end of the third set.
The next time in the Finnish Championships will be played on Sunday, when Ilves and Sport and TPS and Kärpät will face each other.