In Kuopio, KalPa gets quite a bit of help from the absentee list, when star forward Patrick Curry and creditable defenseman Hugo Gallet return to its lineup after being suspended.

Curry received a 1+1 suspension when he kicked Jori Lehterää and knocked Sebastian Revo to the ice with a leg sweep in the second game of the series.

The league’s situation room did not initially take the cases to the table of the disciplinary delegation. However, HIFK made a request for an investigation into Curry’s exploits and the cases were taken into consideration.

The end result was that Curry missed the third and fourth games of the series when he received a two-game suspension.

Curry, the best scorer in KalPa’s regular season, now gets to send greetings in the direction of HIFK, when he is in the ring today. Curry returns to the center of the Kuopio team’s first team, where his teammates are Aleksi Klemetti and Tim Söderlund Leger.

KalPa also gets the French defender Hugo Gallet back to his strength. Gallet was sidelined in the early moments of the series when he tackled HIFK forward Daniel Mäkiaho with an elbow to the head.

Gallet was suspended for three matches for that act.

KalPa won the opening match of the series, after which HIFK won the next two matches.

KalPa tied the wins in the series on Tuesday in Helsinki, when it was better with 4–1 goals.

HIFK makes a few changes to the decisive match of the series. It elevates Petrus Palmu, who previously languished on the edge of the fourth chain, to the number one chain next to Jori Lehterä. Sebastian Repo acts as the third link in the chain.

IFK’s second chain is now Daniel Mäkiaho – Petr Kodýtek – Vincent Marleau. Punapetojen kolmosvitja on istutettu muotoon Anttoni Uronen – Tristan Ashbrook – Iiro Pakarinen. In HIFK’s foursome, Lauri Sinivuori makes his playoff debut when he joins Saku Salmela and Otto Somp.

In IFK’s defense, Ilari Melart returns to the ring after Huil on Wednesday.

Aces moved number one

The series between Kiekko-Espoo and Ässie also continued on Tuesday, when Kiekko-Espoo was better at home (4–1).

Ässät already led the series with a 2–0 win, but Kiekko-Espoo has been close to it.

Ässät makes changes during the deciding game of the series, when Feetu Knihti is promoted to the first chain of spades alongside Peter Tiivola and Valtteri Lipiäinen.

Balazs Sebok, who was chilling in the first chain of Ässie on Tuesday, will now be moved to the fourth chain between Roope Talaja and Otso Ylitalo.

Kiekko-Espoo, on the other hand, will not change its lineup after the victorious Tuesday match.