A full round of eight matches was played in the SM league on Saturday. SaiPa won again.
19:22•Updated 19:32
You can find the standings of the Ice Hockey Championship league here. The results of all the evening’s matches here.
SaiPa continues to be at the top of the ice hockey SM league. The team beat KooKoo in the “Southeast derby” in the guest arena. The final numbers in front of more than 4,000 spectators were 1–4 (1–1, 0–1, 0–2).
KooKoo took the lead in the opening set Robert Rooban with a punch shot, but SaiPa came even Antti Kalapudasen on the finish line. The same gambler hit SaiPa in the lead in the second set.
KooKoo was a tough gauge for SaiPa. The people from Kouvola had won five of the last six matches and took points from each game. SaiPa only got a breather at the end of the third period, when Otto Kivenmäki lifting the puck from the wrist nicely into the roof of the home team’s goal. Kivenmäki’s tenth goal of the season.
The final numbers were completed by Kalapudas, who completed the hat trick. The attacker has scored 14 goals this season.
In line with the number of goals, SaiPa has now won 14 matches in a row, twelve of them in regular time. Two of the wins have come after overtime. All in all, SaiPa is playing the best season in its club history.
Raimo Helminen the crew’s energy is based on a strong joint effort.
– That SaiPa line-up is still not “sexy”, by no means the most famous in the series, expert on the Ice Hockey Tour Jesse Saarinen reminded Areena on broadcast.
Saipa shares the all-time winning streak record second place together with Ässie (2013–2014) and Ilves, of which the winning streak of the latter was born in the regular season in two different seasons during last spring and early fall of this year.
Number one on the list is Kärpät, who won 17 matches in one game in the fall of 2013.
HIFK, which was second in the league, unexpectedly lost to JYP at home. The Jyväskylä people stole the points with final numbers 1–3. HIFK is now three points behind SaiPa.
In addition to JYP, another team from the bottom of the series also managed to win. Jukurit claimed an away win from Äss thanks to a wild third set: Jukurit scored three goals and won the match 4–3.
In other matches, Pelicans defeated KalPa in overtime 2–1, Ilves beat Kärpät 4–2 away and TPS defeated Sport 5–4 in overtime.
The news is updated.