The Women’s Floorball League championship remains in Turku, when TPS won the sixth final match against Classic. The championship is the third in a row for Turku.
Only Paloniemi
Jussi Saarinen
Jenni Harmanen
STT Sports
Turku TPS has won the women’s Finnish floorball championship. In the sixth match of the final series, TPS defeated the Tampere team Classic with a score of 5-4 and won the championship 4-2.
The championship is TPS’s third in a row. Classic finished second in the women’s F-League last season as well.
FBC Loisto won the women’s bronze medals this season.
In the match TPS Meri-Helmi Höynälä took his career to this season Laura Rantanen pass to give the home team the lead after about eight minutes of the game. Classic leveled the situation at 1–1 Suvi Hämäläinen from a sharp shot. Hämäläinen’s hit was already the 16th of the playoffs.
At the beginning of the second period Seraina Fitz put the home side back in front when he finished Olivia Pietilän from the pass at the end of a quick counterattack. Just three minutes later Laura Rantanen already took the team to a two-goal run away.
Still at the end of the second set of the Classic Johanna Homi managed to reduce the situation to 3–2, but Veera Kuosmanen held on to TPS’s two-goal lead a minute before the final buzzer with his goal.
Although TPS went into the final with a two-goal lead, the players could have been thinking about the rough decision of the previous home match, where Classic won from four goals behind. Noora Rantanen a wonderful goal in the middle of the final set eased the Turku people’s minds, even though Classic came out on top at the end.
Rantanen’s career ended with the championship
Laura Rantanen, TPS’s legendary player, ended her playing career with the third consecutive championship. Rantanen has played in the TPS jersey since the 2008–2009 season.
– My career ends here, it feels good. There is a longing associated with this. The people with whom I have been able to work all season make this so great, Rantanen said in an interview with , visibly emotional.
Rantanen reflects that a long career can accommodate a lot of everything, especially now he has three consecutive championships in mind, which appear to be different.
– In the first season we won the championship as underdogs, in the second we played a pretty superior season. This was another fluctuating and steady season.
– Every championship is unique. If you compare to last year, this did not come easy, we had to go to pressure points and turn tight games into our win, yes this tastes good, team captain Jenna Saario tripped from Ranta.
Even in the special final series, all the previous games ended in away wins, now TPS crowned the season at home.
– It was really tight, but fortunately we were able to decide the championship on our home field, rejoiced the head coach of TPS Aki Vilander.
– We’ve had a long season and a lot of challenges, but at no point did we relax. The team’s mental edge held up really well. The first court showed their great skills in the finals, and the young players improved their performances all the time during the series.
Classic’s head coach Jarkko Rinne couldn’t get his team to hit the level of the previous away game.
– We lost to the better, even though we tried everything. Crying in the market doesn’t help, we have to move on, Rinne summed up.
The sixth final match was watched by a record audience of 1,047 spectators for the women’s final series at Kupitta in Turku.