TPS beat Nokian KrP 3–2 in the decisive seventh final match of the floorball men’s F-League.
Hinn Hirvonen,
Jussi Jäkälä,
Joel Sippola
TPS has won the men’s Finnish floorball championship. The championship was decided in front of an audience of more than 5,000 people at Hakametsä in Tampere in the overtime of the decisive seventh final match, when the end of his career this spring Mikko Hautaniemi hit the ball into Nokian KrP’s net in 70:22.
– It feels incredible, better than I would have predicted would happen. As a sports romantic, this is a pretty nice ending. This was it, Hautaniemi commented to Urheilu.
The championship was the first in the history of the TPS men’s team.
This is how the final went
The decisive seventh final match was, like the teams’ previous meetings, extremely tight. Only managed to score in the opening set Olli Lainewho gave the away team the lead with his hard shot.
KrP had a great opportunity to level the game at the beginning of the second period, when it got the upper hand. TPS’s excellent defense as its last lock Oskari Fälden however it lasted.
Returned to TPS ranks in January Janne Nurminen hit his first hit of the playoffs in the sweet spot when he made it 2-0 midway through the match.
In the final, the people from Nokia started from behind two goals with a completely new look and the ball was in TPS’s goal after only 14 seconds, when Mikko Laakso directed KrP’s 1–2 reduction from in front of the goal.
The home team got a new boost from the narrowing goal and kept rolling towards the TPS goal. The guests Peteris Treksen the penalty caused the KrP players and the home crowd to vent and the rotation continued with superiority, but TPS defended disciplinedly and also solved another weakness.
The home crowd got their reward in 52.06, when Joonatan Kovanen shot the ball accurately into the net from a distance. The hit was Kovanen’s 13th in the playoffs.
No more hits were seen in the final set, so the decision stretched into the extra set.
Mikko Hautaniemi, playing the last match of his career, became the hero of TPS, who scored TPS’s winning goal in 70:22.
– This was one of the most boring matches I’ve ever played. This is really passive and quite horrible to take a profit in this way. It was the little place that was needed, we put the ball in the dumpling and the championship is ours, Hautaniemi decided.
SM silver is the second in a row for Nokian KrP. The young Nokia gave a tough resistance in the final series.
It managed to lead the series already 3–1.
– It’s a motivated group. I hope we will be together for a long time. I believe that the best years are still ahead, but yes we wanted to win now, captain of Nokian KrP Joona Rantala stated.
Why did TPS rise alongside and over?
– Really tight games. Stick to the little things. We had yv in the vito game and were close to equalizing.
This is what the championship celebration looked like
Updated: 22:42: Added Joona Rantala’s comments and Tomi Hänninen’s photos.