I watched the HIFK game and I’ll try to find the time later on to write a report about it, but for the moment, here are tonight’s results.

So then, HIFK versus KalPa in Helsinki. As someone who is largely neutral (neither team ranks among my favourites nor my pet hates, though I’ll admit to a bias for a KalPa victory) it would be easy to adopt a somewhat disinterested stance about this game. No chance! This was a gripping, exciting, high quality game with a final score that belies the true run of the match. The home side were dominant for large tracts of the hour, driving relentlessly at a fast and furious pace. They opened up the KalPa defence numerous times but failed to score from any of the chances thanks to Ari Ahonen’s outstanding performance in the away goal, any number of yellow jerseys sacrificing their body parts to block the shot, forwards fannying completely on the shot, and the pipe work rescuing KalPa twice. Despite the onslaught, the visitors were in no way out of the game, and launched their own high speed counter attacks and sometimes sustained assaults on the home goal. Their inter-passing and movement bettered even that of their hosts. Many players from both sides enjoyed sterling performances: Petteri Wirtanen and Mikael Granlund to the fore for HIFK, and Tuomas Kiiskinen and Sakari “one minute man” Salminen, in addition to Ahonen, were notable for the visitors. Kiiskinen, in particular, was at times electrifying, the Helsinki defence containing him only with great difficulty. Juuso Riksman in the home goal made a number of good saves, but at other times looked somewhat unconvincing. Of more importance though were the defenders in front of him, some of whom were plain flaky. Both Mikko Kousa and Markus Kankaanperä were error prone, and a mistake by the former would prove critical.

KalPa took the lead on 11:15 when Ossi Saarinen got sufficiently free in front of goal to get a clean shot past Riksman following a face off in the HIFK defensive zone. Rather improbably given the home side pressure, this was extended early in the second period when a HIFK defensive “clearance” went off the back board to Kiiskinen whose shot from a narrow angle went through Riksman. Wirtanen scored HIFK’s only reply from a penalty shot, awarded when the same man was hauled down from behind when in the act of attempting to beat Ahonen. The penalty employed no tactics: straight down the ice and shoot through the goalie’s legs, Ahonen giving the impression of being sat on a horse. Shortly afterwards, there was an almighty goal mouth scramble in the KalPa goal, that developed into what appeared to be a game of British Bulldog. When it was over, all 10 outfield players, plus two of the officials, were piled in a heap on top of Ahonen. Where the puck was is anybody’s guess. The game got beyond HIFK towards the end of the third when Kousa made a mess of a straightforward defensive situation, and then, when trying to rectify it, succeeded only in passing the puck to Salminen. The KalPa winger advanced on goal and gave Riksman not an earthly with a vicious shot. Scoring was wrapped up on 59:44 when Mikko Kukkonen found the untended net from behind his own red line.

Three more games tonight, and we’ll start in Helsinki where a full house in the Hartwall Arena saw Janne Pesonen get an assist on his debut for HIFK. However, it was the brothers from Oulunsalo that made the headlines, scoring three of their team’s four goals between them. Elder brother Mikael got two, the first after just 12 seconds of the game, and the younger Markus got one. The surname’s Granlund, in case you’re wondering, and the net result was Jokerit’s first home defeat of the season. Seven goals in Helsinki and seven goals too in Kuopio. KalPa continued their winning ways with a comfortable win over Lukko, a team that’s stuttering a bit at the moment. An evening of lots of goals is rounded off in Hämeenlinna, where Kerho and Ässät share eight of them. Not too evenly unfortunately from my perspective as Kerho get yet another thumping, in which Tuomas Santavuori collected a hat trick for the visitors.

Jokerit’s defeat means that Pelicans stay top, but their lead is trimmed to two points over KalPa, who jump up a couple of places. Jokerit slip to third, and are joined on 22 points by Ässät, who squeeze Kärpät out of fourth place. Lukko remain sixth, but are now five points adrift of the team above them. HIFK’s win takes them over TPS into eighth place, and a terrible season for HPK continues with them propping up the rest of the league.

Three games tonight in SM-liiga, in Espoo, Tampere and Oulu. Blues hosted JYP, and eventually won on penalties, Tommi Huhtala getting the decisive goal. They did it the hard way too, hauling in a JYP two goal lead, built up in half an hour with goals from Kristian Näkyvä and Harri Pesonen, thanks to replies from Petri Lammassaari and Camilo Miettinen.

TPS made the journey to Raksila. Their recent form has been good, enabling them to climb to mid-table respectability, and with Kärpät suffering from injuries (Lehtonen, Mäntymaa, Eklund, Saarenheimo and Haataja are all missing), they must have arrived with a good sense of optimism. What greeted them, however, were the front two chains firing on all cylinders. Juho Keränen and Miikka Salomäki scored a brace apiece, alternating to ratchet up a four goal lead before the clock reached half an hour. Mikko Laine replied with a power play goal late in the second period, but in the third Joonas Donskoi restored the four goal advantage while short-handed, before Marko Anttila completed the scoring with the visitors’ second goal.

Meanwhile in Hakametsä, Ilves took on Pelicans. Well I exaggerate: Ilves may be a fierce feline and Pelican a gormless bird, but in the fight that took place this evening, the bird was a lot more astute, decisive and had a far bigger bite than the soft pussy. The final score flattered Ilves: Ville Koistinen scored from close in when a ricocheting puck squirted his way, and was accredited with the second when Niko Hovinen saved his rasping drive, but then Jarkko Immonen, trying to glove the puck away to safety, succeeded only in putting it into his own net. By the time Ilves opened their account, however, Pelicans already had five on the board, and with not too much luck it could have been even more. Man of the match Max Wärn and Aaron Brocklehurst both scored twice and Arttu Luttinen got the other. Pelicans don’t have any star names in their team — their finances are very modest so they probably couldn’t afford any big names even if they wanted to — but Kai Suikkanen has got the whole team playing well as a unit.

Pelicans’ win makes them the new league leaders, three points clear of Jokerit who have three games in hand. Kärpät’s win lifts us to third place, level on points with the pyjama men, but, like Pelicans, having also played 11 games. Blues stay in seventh place, though the gap to eighth placed TPS now stretches to four points. JYP’s point takes them above Tappara, and Ilves stay very firmly next to bottom. Tampere’s two clubs now occupy two of the bottom three positions.

Needless to say, this then fuelled speculation that Niinimaa might sign for Kärpät. He’s from very near Oulu and said night club is in the city and we are running a spate of injuries to defenders at the moment, so there’s no shortage of partisan logic. Oscar Eklund is out for a month or so with knee ligament damage, and injuries to Mikko Lehtonen and Ville Mäntymaa necessitated call-ups to 17 year old Ville Pokka and just turned 21 year old Mikko Niemelä. The former is so young he’s actually spent less time in Finland than I have. That apart, youth and inexperience prevented neither man from acquitting himself well, though it’s still none too challenging to comprehend why someone of Niinimaa’s experience might be under consideration.

Oh dear, 36 seconds into the second period and Salminen, in acres of space in front of goal, restores KalPa’s two goal advantage. A few minutes later and Kerho are getting even worse, believe it or not. They pay the price for failing to clear their own defensive zone, Joonas Riekkinen scoring KalPa’s fourth with a free shot from directly in front despite the close proximity of two defenders. Halfway through the period and the home side are fighting back thanks to KalPa penalties. Piispanen scores his second of the night with a backhand wraparound. Ahonen was desperately slow getting across his goal and was nowhere near covering the post when the puck went in. End of the second period and KalPa are rueing their inability to stay out of the penalty box. Repeatedly having the man advantage, Kerho finally put their game together, and in the fourth penalty of the period, all of which went against the visitors, Marko Tuulola narrowed the deficit to a single goal with just one second of the period remaining.

The end of an exciting and fluctuating game. The final period was pretty even, both sides playing well, creating chances but not able to convert them into goals. With some three minutes remaining, Jyri Junnila took a penalty for high-sticking. Kerho played the penalty six on four and put the KalPa goal under intense pressure searching for the equaliser. Ahonen made a couple of important saves during this spell, and KalPa remained hard pressed after Junnila returned. Eventually, the puck fell for Riekkinen who shoved it down the ice just to relieve the siege, and was probably as surprised as anyone when it trickled into the net at the far end for his second, and his team’s fifth, goal. On the balance of play over the hour, a deserved away victory.

Other games:
Ilves 0 - 6 HIFK
Ässät 0 - 1 TPS

Kärpät 2 - 1 Tappara (2-1)(0-0)(0-0)
SaiPa 7 - 2 Lukko (2-1)(1-1)(4-0)

In other news, Garrett Raboin and TPS have parted company by mutual agreement. Not satisfied with his junior role in the team, the 26 year old defender will seek other opportunities.

Urho’s cameras are in Espoo for this match, and at the first break the home side have a deserved two goal lead. Kristian Kuusela opened the scoring after Teemu Ramstedt injected some pace into the attack, and towards the end of the period Mikael Kurki opened his account for the season by adding the second. Ilves give the impression of just going through the motions, and they’ll have to bring a lot more of everything into their game to avoid defeat.

At the end of the second period the biggest question is how Blues failed to extend their lead. Ilves finally came to life in the last few minutes, but prior to that Blues enjoyed almost total domination.

The match is over after extra time and penalties, and Blues’ inability to turn domination into goals has cost them a game that they had by the throat until deep into the middle period. Ilves started the final period where they left off the second and then stepped up some more, but still didn’t reach much more than parity with Blues in terms of possession. Nor were their chances especially more clear cut than their opponents’; where they were superior, however, was in finishing. After 5 minutes of the period Ari Vallin collected the second of his evening’s two penalties. In the ensuing power play, Ilves got players in front of goal allowing Ville Koistinen to thrash the puck home from the blue line past an unsighted Petri Koivisto. Five minutes later, a superb pass from Mark Lee found the advancing Ryan Glenn who slotted the puck through Koivisto’s legs. Parity at full time and parity after extra time brought on the penalty shoot out, which Koistinen settled in Ilves’ favour. Blues will be kicking themselves.

It seems to have been an evening for fight backs. In Helsinki, Kärpät opened up a two goal lead only for the hosts first to equalise and then win on penalties.  In Jyväskylä, SaiPa levelled a three goal deficit but were eventually defeated on penalties, and in Kuopio there was no fight back of any kind as KalPa made minced meat out of the Pelicans. Tampere’s other half also won on penalties, Tappara initially building up a two goal lead only to see Ässät knock it down. The best fight back was in Turku where kerho equalised from two goals behind with just 8 seconds of the hour left, and then collected the extra point in extra time.

HIFK 3 - 2 Kärpät (RL)
JYP 5 - 4 SaiPa (RL)
KalPa 6 - 1 Pelicans
Tappara 3 - 2 Ässät (RL)
TPS 3 - 4 HPK (JA)


The table’s been copied and pasted from the sm-liiga web site, so presumably I need to acknowledge their copyright. Formalities over, top of the heap at the moment are the pyjama men. They beat KalPa on Saturday with a score that eventually read 4-0,  though the game was in the balance until the last 10 minutes. Jani Rita scored twice and Eero Kilpeläinen achieved his third shut out in just 7 games. On their back bumper, a little surprisingly perhaps, are Lahti’s finest. On Saturday they won by the odd goal in five in Rauma to continue their good run of results. Ässät dropped off top perch by dint of not playing over the weekend, though Lukko’s and KalPa’s defeats mean that Kärpät retain fourth place despite also not playing. Blues occupy their seemingly obligatory mid-table position, and then a sizeable jump to Ilves, another team that appears to have “mid-table” written into its league contract. Next comes SaiPa, who at least have the excuse of lack of financial clout, followed by HIFK, who most certainly do not. Life is not so easy post Kari Jalonen it seems, something that is all too familiar in these parts up here. Tappara, nowadays under new head coach Risto Dufva, have made progress in the last few games after a calamitous start to the season, and propping up the lot are the three(*) three lettered acronyms. Rumours are flying that kerho’s Harri Rindell will soon become the third head coach casualty of the season. Good grief, the season’s hardly started.

Down a notch in Mestis, Raksila’s second team, Kiekko-Laser, are facing bankruptcy. Management are trying to arrange new financing, but it seems that at least one major creditor is less than convinced of its viability.

(*) Yes, I know JYP isn’t a TLA, but “three three lettered acronyms” is a nice compact cliche so I used it.

Well, it had to happen: our first defeat in normal time of the season. But did it really have to be at home? By such a heavy scoreline? And, of all the teams on earth, by Blues? The pain is almost real. There were two games last night, featuring my two favourite teams at home against opponents who have a long history of under-achieving. Both teams got pummelled by the same 1-4 scoreline. Kärpät went down with all hands in Raksila to the aforementioned men from Espoo, and Kerho suffered the same fate in Rinkelinmäki to Pelicans.

Just the one game tonight, in Jyväskylä, where the league’s basement dwellers, JYP, hosted Ässät. Ässät are a resurgent team these days, carrying on from their strong season last year after aeons in the wilderness. The first period was nip and tuck with both teams having chances. Only one was taken, by Ässät’s Joel Armia, who siezed on the loose puck after Arto Laatikainen had over-elaborated in defence. JYP’s defensive frailties were further exposed in the second period, the beneficiary on this occasion being Radek Smolenak, scoring a ridiculously soft goal. Short-handed and with a defender blocking his route to goal, the Czech nevertheless shot towards goal only to see the puck ricochet off a skate and loop innocuously in the air towards Joni Myllykoski. Bizarrely, the goalkeeper allowed the puck to bounce off him and back towards the now unattended Smolenak who had ambled in after his own shot. The same man made it 0-3 with a power play goal 90 seconds later, and came within a whisker of a hat trick when he steered a shot onto a post from directly in front, and then seconds later hit the other post with the attempted wraparound. At the end of the period it was the visitors’ turn to pay for their complacency. Just 6 seconds remained on the clock when Eric Perrin won a face off just outside the Ässät defensive zone, going forwards. He fed Ossi Louhivaara who skipped round Antti Raanta to score.

JYP exerted increasing pressure in the final period and reduced the arrears to a solitary goal when Antti Pihlström lashed in from distance on the power play. The equaliser wouldn’t come though, and JYP’s attempt to force it by withdrawing Myllykoski cost them two further goals, both while playing six versus four. First, Ville Uusitalo scrambled the puck down the ice for Tomas Zaborsky to race on to and score. At the following re-start, Stephen Dixon beat Perrin and fed back to Uusitalo who immediately scored into the still vacant net from his own half.

Ässät’s players now occupy three of the top four places in the points market. Uusitalo leads with 1+9, second is Smolenak with 5+4, and fourth is Zaborsky with 5+2. The interloper is HIFK’s Ville Peltonen with 4+4.

JYP’s defeat keeps them at the foot of the table, while Ässät’s victory makes them the new league leaders, two points clear of Jokerit. Pelicans win means that they overhaul the Weasels into fourth place, and Blues victory lifts them to their usual mid-table mediocrity.

There was an interesting interview with Stephen Dixon during one of the interludes in today’s game. He won World Championships at both U18 and U20 with Canada, has played in the AHL, but never had the opportunity to show his skills in the NHL. When asked about this he was calm and philosophical, hoping for the chance, but content with things if it doesn’t come. He came to Europe at quite a young age; he’s 26 now and has previously played in both Sweden and Russia. He surprised me by saying that the game in Finland is faster than in either Sweden or Russia, and it took him a couple of games to adjust to the pace over here.

After the brief hiatus over the weekend (mine, that is, not the ice hockey), it’s back to the results round up. Four matches tonight, and we’ll start in Turku where Tappara finally won a game. Things didn’t start too well for them though. Soon after the start, Timo Salo got 2+10 for one of the most brainless pieces of boarding I’ve seen in a long time. Tappara’s ensuing power play was woeful, struggling even to get over the halfway line for most of it. Matters continued in much the same vein, and midway through the first period Ville Vahalahti, playing in his 601st top league game, took advantage of some sloppy defending to put TPS a goal up. At some point soon afterwards, Tappara suddenly remembered how to play, and became the more coherent of the two teams, though still without any serious threats on Marek Schwarz’s goal.

The second period continued in much the same pattern as the latter part of the first period, with Tappara playing really quite well. Penalties proved to be TPS’ undoing: they only took two of them, both minors, but Tappara scored during each, first through Tuukka Mäntylä and then through Jussi Makkonen. The killer goal came midway through the final period when Antti Erkinjuntti, who had a very effective game, stretched Tappara’s lead to 1-3. TPS played a very long time with Schwarz absent from his net-minding duties in a vain attempt to rescue the game, but eventually Tuomas Vänttinen added a fourth for the visitors with just one second left on the clock.

As Tappara were eradicating the league’s last remaining 0% record, so too was the last remaining 100% record being destroyed. Ässät travelled to Kuopio where they twice trailed before eventually winning in extra time. Ryan Lannon opened the hosts’ account and Jukka Hentunen extended the lead. However, goals from Tomas Zaborsky and Veli-Matti Savinainen levelled affairs with half an hour gone. Matti Kuparinen restored the home advantage with the game’s only power play goal at the beginning of the final period, only for Stephen Dixon to tie things up again. The match was finally settled by Aki Uusikartano in extra time. Top points scorer of the game was Radek Smolenak with 0+3.

Elsewhere, Lukko added to JYP’s growing problems by beating them in Rauma, Teemu Nurmi getting one of the goals while the hosts were short-handed. Lastly, in Lappeenranta, SaiPa recorded their second victory of the season by beating Ilves 3-0, all goals coming in the final period.

KalPa’s point takes them over Kärpät into second, with Ässät and Lukko in hot pursuit in fourth and fifth respectively. Tappara’s win takes them up a place from bottom to level on points with TPS. The bottom team now, improbably, is JYP.