by Aatami Mäkinen
After a two day break, Finland’s top hockey league, SM-liiga, got back underway with twelve teams in action last Tuesday.
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
* Tappara, fresh from their dramatic come from behind win over city rivals Ilves, opened up a Seven point lead at the top of the standings after grinding out a slender 2-1 win in Hameenlinna. HPK had taken the lead through Teemu Turunen but Jan-Mikael Jarvinen replied just over a minute later to tie the game. Veli-Matti Savinainen scored what proved to be the game winner at the 22:21 mark to complete another comeback victory.
* KalPa, are desperately trying to keep pace with the Tampere giants and recorded a vital road win of their own over JYP in Jyvaskyla. They did it the hard way too, finding themselves two goals down by the end of the first period. Three goals in 13 minutes midway through the game turned the result around though, with Matias Myttynen claiming his second goal with an empty netter and also got an assist on KalPa’s third goal. The Kuopio based team from Eastern Finland are hoping to cut Tappara’s lead to four points as they have played a game less, so the title race is still very much on at this stage.
* TPS of Turku are just a further point back in third after they found the net five times against Sport Vaasa. On a day for comeback wins, TPS gave up an early goal after just 49 seconds, but soon replied with markers from Miro Keskitalo, Eric Perrin and Iikka Pikkarainen. Sport were not to be taken lightly though, and were back in the game early in the third period when Markus Nordlund netted. However, two goals in the last 5 minutes from Tomi Kallio made the game safe for the home side.
* Assat also won by the same 5-2 score line, but did so on the road against struggling KooKoo. They had to twice come from behind but two goals each from Simon Suoranta and Niko Ojamaki proved enough. The team from Pori on the Western Finnish coast are in fine form right now and after watching them destroy HIFK on their own ice last week, I would imagine they will start to close the gap at the top and be in title contention come the end of the season.
* HIFK and Ilves were coming off the back of disappointing results from last week and met in the capital. Both sides now find themselves in the middle of the standings after IFK were turned over at home by Assat last Thursday, and then Ilves somehow lost the Tampere derby in overtime the following night, after taking what seemed at the time an unassailable 3-0 lead. Both teams were looking for a positive result to boost confidence and it was the Helsinki side that skated off with the points with a 3-1 victory after goals from Mikael Johansson, Teemu Eronen and Roope Hintz.
* Pelicans Lahti have hit a hot streak right now and recorded their third win in the last four games when they made the long trip to Oulu in the North West of the country. Mikko Lehtonen gave Karpat the lead at 5:12 but Hannes Bjorninen levelled the score at 38:09 and then Nico Manelius completed the comeback at 49:49. Karpat are sitting down in 13th in the standings after their latest loss, in what has been a disappointing campaign for them so far, but Pelicans have now moved up to Sixth and level on points with Assat!
You can read a full report by Aatami Mäkinen here: http://heshootshescores91.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/sm-liiga-pelicans-karpat-2-1-tuesday.html
HPK v Tappara 1-2
HIFK v Ilves 3-1
JYP v KalPa 2-4
Karpat v Pelicans 1-2
KooKoo v Assat 2-5
TPS v Sport 5-2
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
* HPK won a thrilling game in Mikkeli against Jukurit which ended up going to overtime. Juho Keriinen scored the winner 44 seconds into the extra session to cap a good night for him. Keriinen had opened the scoring mid-way through the first period, only for Jukurit to snatch the lead with goals either side of the first intermission from Teemu Tallberg and Zach Budish. Niko Kapanen levelled the scores five minutes later but the home side were back ahead within 66 seconds when Marko Kauppinen netted. That looked to have been enough to seal the win but HPK had other ideas, when Janne Lahti tied the game again with just 69 seconds left to force overtime. Keranen got an assist on that goal and then hit the winner early into the extra period.
* SaiPa got an important road win against bottom of the table Lukko. Mikael Kuronen gave the visitors an early lead and then sealed the result with 38 seconds left when he hit an empty netter. In between those goals, Brett Carson had doubled SaiPa’s lead early in the second period, but Lukko pulled a goal back through Jesse Virtanen with 9 minutes left to set up a tense finale. In the end Kuronen’s second goal of the game was enough to kill of Lukko, who are now starting to look cut adrift at the bottom of the standings.
Jukurit v HPK 3-4
Lukko v SaiPa 1-3
Thursday, November 17, 2016
* Assat got off to a great start in their game with SaiPa, as they scored after just 35 seconds with a goal by Ville Korhonen. That became two 7 minutes later when Charles Bertrand found the net. However, just 50 seconds had elapsed when SaiPa got a goal back from Ville Vainikainen. Mikael Kuronen then tied things up just 1:24 into the second period. If Assat thought the game was slipping away from them they were wrong. Valtteri Viljanen scored at 34:59 to restore the Pori-based side’s lead before late markers from Simon Suoranta and Mikael Saha prevented a second SaiPa comeback.
* Struggling Karpat travelled to high-flying KalPa and suffered another loss despite taking the lead. Mikko Lehtonen scored at 13:23 of the game and at that point the visitors were thinking a shock might be on the cards. However, just over ten minutes later the home side restored parity when Otto Leskinen levelled the score. Just 90 seconds later and Juuso Riikola turned the game around for a 2-1 lead. Jesse Mankinen, who set up Riikola for his team’s seconds goal iced the game just 26 seconds into the final period as KalPa looked to close in on Tappara at the top of the standings.
* Tappara feeling the pressure at the top of the table needed overtime to see-off a difficult JYP side at home. The team from Jyvaskyla raced into an early two goal lead after markers from Juha-Pekka Hytonen and Jusso Vainio found the net. However, Tappara have made a specialty out of come-from-behind wins this week and were on the board at 43:53 when Jukka Peltola rounded off a pass from Aleksi Salonen and Jani Lajunen. Less than four minutes later Veli-Matti Savinainen tied the game with Henrik Haapala setting him up. That was enough to send the game into overtime and with 28 seconds left before a shootout was required, Haapala and Savinainen combined again to set Peltola up for his second of the game and complete another remarkable comeback.
Assat v SaiPa 5-2
KalPa v Karpat 3-1
Tappara v JYP 3-2
Friday, November 18, 2016
* TPS of Turku, kept pace with the teams at the top after an impressive 4-2 win in Helskinki. Eric Thorell gave the visitors an early lead, but HIFK hit back when Miro Heiskanen levelled at 12:33. Howver, TPS took a 2 goal lead into the first intermission after Eric Perrin and Henrik Tallinder scored. Corey Elkins scored the only goal of the middle period, to drag IFK back into the game, but Jasper Lindsten’s marker with just over seven minutes remaining made the game safe.
* Pelicans disappointingly lost 4-1 to bottom placed Lukko on home ice. For a full game report please follow the link here: http://heshootshescores91.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/sm-liiga-pelicans-v-lukko-friday.html
* Sport Vaasa had to come from two goals behind to eventually beat KooKoo. Juha-Pekka Hastaja scored twice in the opening 12 minutes to give the visitors a surprise lead, but Olavi Vauhkonen and Tuomas Vanttinen scored, to tie the game, which now looked to be heading into overtime. Tommi Tikka, had other ideas though, when he finished off a pass from Filip Riska and Robin Salo with just 2 seconds left on the clock to win the game.
HIFK v TPS 2-4
Pelicans v Lukko 1-4
Sport v KooKoo 3-2
Saturday, November 19, 2016
* HPK ground out a narrow win over HIFK in Hameenlinna. Joonas Lehtivuori gave HPK the lead but Juhamatti Aaltonen levelled less than ten minutes later. Severi Sillanpaa, netted at 23:31, which proved to be the game winner.
* TPS are in fine form right now and racked up another big win, this time over Ilves in Tampere. Two goals from Otto Nieminen, as well as single markers from Erik Thorell, Jonne Virtanen and Ilkka Pikkarainen proved to be too much for the home side. Ville Meskanen did score for Ilves at 21:23 to make it a one goal game, but TPS just stepped things up soon after to power home another impressive victory.
* JYP raced into a 3-0 lead after goals from Joonas Nattinen, Jerry Turkulainen and Tuomas Pihlman had the game all but won by the 33 minute mark. However, Assat staged something of a comeback I the final period after first Simon Suoranta scored just 43 seconds into the period, and then Niko Ojamaki made it a tense finale when he netted at 56:13. JYP did enough to hang onto a much-needed win though.
* It was a similar story for KalPa in their victory over Tappara. The team from Kuopio scored twice in the opening period through Santeri Lukka and Matias Myttynen but Tappara pulled one back through Teemu Nurmi at 33:43. KalPa responded staright away though and restored their two goal lead less than two minutes later after being presented with a powerplay opportunity. Tappara pulled another goal back at 48:59 to set up another exciting finish, but the team from Tampere were unable to find a third goal to tie things up.
* Karpat secured an important win over Kookoo in Oulu. Lasse Kukkonen scored at the start of the second period for Karpat but Ryan O’Connor tied the game at the mid-way point, which would see the game going into overtime. With 42 seconds before the teams headed for a shoot-out, Saku Maenalanen scored to give Karpat the win.
* Lukko who pulled off a surprise victory over Pelcians the night before found themselves on the wrong end of a 7-1 reverse at home to Jukurit. The Mikkeli based team raced into a six goal lead thanks to strikes from Miika Roine, Teemu Henritius, Teemu Tallberg, Zach Budish and Topi Nattinen with two. Joonas Niemelii pulled one back at 51:53 but that was merely a consolation. Turo Asplund scored the game’s final goal to make it an emphatic result.
* Pelicans got back on track with a much better performance on the road against SalPa. You can read the full report here:
HPK v HIFK 2-1
Ilves v TPS 1-5
JYP v Assat 3-2
KalPa v Tappara 3-2
Karpat v Kookoo 2-1
Lukko v Jukurit 1-7
SalPa v Pelicans 1-2
Standings as at 21.11.16
1-Tappara 45
2-KalPa 45
3-TPS 41
4-Jukurit 36
5-Assat 34
6-Pelicans 34
7-Sport 34
8-HPK 32
9-HIFK 29
10-Ilves 28
11-JYP 28
12-SaiPa 26
13-Karpat 25
14-Kookoo 20
15-Lukko 17
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