Twenty-four hours later than planned, a quick write up of Jukurit’s visit to Vaasa. Well, at least I do have a home life. For those of you popping your head round the corner for the first time or otherwise haven’t been following, it’s the Mestis play offs, quarter-final stage, best of five which Sport are leading 2-1. Doing the sums ain’t difficult — it’s win or out for Jukurit.
The first period saw plenty of huffing and puffing but not a huge amount in terms of constructive play. Jukurit in particular couldn’t get their act together, having no end of difficulty in clearing their own zone and creating little clear cut at the other end. The goalkeepers still had some work to do though – and both Eero Väre in the home net and his opposite number Joni Myllykoski had excellent games – particularly during the several melees that developed in front of both goals. The only goal of the period came on exactly 5 minutes when Jukurit were caught changing. Paul Cabana raced through on goal and his cross pass stranded Myllykoski and allowed Ian MacNeil to score with ease.
The second period didn’t start much better for Jukurit, taking a penalty almost immediately, but after surviving that they started finding their skates and rhythm and became increasingly dangerous. The equaliser came after 28:26 when a completely free Jesse Uronen shot past Väre. The continued pressure led Sport into penalty problems, and Tomi Lindfors put the men from Mikkeli ahead during a 5 on 3 power play. The latter part of the period saw the home side restore parity in the play, but no more goals left the score at 1-2 at the end of the period.
The start of the third carried on from where the end of the second left off, both sides playing well. The home side carved an equaliser after 44:35 when Kim Nabb tapped in the loose puck after some great stick handling in front of net by Patrik Westerback. The last 10 minutes saw the game turn against Sport and particularly against Cabana. On 51:26 he was penalised for tripping during a hectic scramble in front of his own goal. A minute later, Väre was left helpless when Antti Laakso deflected a shot from the point past him, putting the visitors again a goal to the good. That man Cabana was in trouble again on 57:04 when he was penalised for hooking following a tussle behind the Jukurit goal. The look on his face when he saw the referee’s arm raised gave a pretty good idea he thought his opponent had embellished the theatricals, and the solid looking right hook to the jaw that felled his opponent about 3 seconds later added certainty to the impression. It also added 2 minutes to the penalty when his team needed 6 on 5. Instead, Sport tried to salvage the match in the last half minute 5 against 5, Väre having vacated the net. With Sport attacking on the right wing, there followed a heavy collision between Nabb and Lindfors which pole-axed the former and left him lying face down in a pool of blood in the Jukurit end zone. Incredibly play was allowed to continue, and to add to the farce Jukurit contrived to miss the empty net at the other end despite having three attackers present before the first defender got back and nipped the puck away. Play was only stopped when Sport countered again with the still prostrate Nabb about an aeon offside. Cue uproar from the home team (the crowd, unsurprisingly, were already in uproar) and a lengthy break to allow for Lindfors to be sent off for high-sticking, Nabb to be re-erected to the vertical position, part of his lower cranium to be excavated from the ice, a couple of pints of his blood to be swabbed away and the sausages to be re-heated. One of the officials made the mistake of getting within vocal range of Juhani Tamminen. I didn’t get too much of the barrage, although the word perkele made more than one appearance, and in a voice that suggested that Urheilukanava had sneaked a microphone up his trouser leg without his knowledge. When play did eventually resume, the final 10 seconds saw no further goals, leaving Jukurit winners, 2-3.
A word about the crowd in Vaasa. Sport’s average home gate in runkosarja, 2181, was double the league average. Yesterday’s crowd was a whopping 3608, who provided a tremendous atmosphere for a tense game.
