Cameron Wright left the second game holding his neck. Mika Kylmäniemi / AOP
The most interesting game of the day
Tappara, the league’s biggest champion favorite, has not had a particularly convincing start to the playoffs. The team came into their opening game at home last Saturday sharp, taking the opening set both in terms of results (1–0) and gameplay (shots 11–4 and expected goals 0.5–0.2), but already at the end of the opening game, HPK looked sharper.
In the second game in Hämeenlinna on Monday, Tappara took the shots 69–45 and the expected 3.6–2.6 in the match statistics, but still did not feel dangerous at all in the match. HPK deservedly won 2–1 with its sharp grip. What was particularly worrying in the second game was that the team’s biggest stars Joachim Blichfeld and Benjamin Rautiainen were far from their best level in the regular season. The Danish striker was only seen in a dangerous tackling situation at the end and Rautiainen’s game was suffocated by over-attempting. Even though Tappara’s material is the most extensive of the playoff teams, against HPK, which defends so tightly, the team may in the end be surprisingly dependent on the success of its star players.
The success of HPK’s defensive battle is largely based on the fact that the team has the best goalkeeper in the league at the moment, Kim Saarinen. With his own confidence, Saarinen creates faith in the entire team and in the adequacy of his own way of playing.
Having seen through all of HPK’s playoffs, Kim Saarinen’s wild statistics (96.15% / 1.18 / –10.27) are not at all slack at the moment. Of all the guards who played in the playoffs, Saarinen has turned away the most expectations from the opponents. When the statistics correspond to the number of eyes, there is also no reason to expect the level of the HPK guard to drop. In order to be successful against HPK, Tappara must definitely get more sharpness in their attacking play. Here, of course, the focus is on the top chains. Tappara’s team is built this season in such a way that Nelonen is a pure power chain – against HPK, the speed of that department is not enough to get to good enough goal positions. In the upper chains, in addition to the ineffectiveness of Blichfeld and Benjamin Rautiainen, it is worth paying attention to the one who got into good shape at the end of the regular season Oiva Keskinen (0+0) in the first two games.
My expectation for the triple leg is that Tappara’s coaching staff will get their star players tuned up to a completely new pace for the home game.
The bomb of the assembly department can be found in the HPK team. HPK’s undisputed number one player Cameron Wright is not in today’s playing lineup. Wright’s place in the first chain will be taken by Axel Skinnari. Markus Loponen on the other hand, he replaces Vili Toivonen in the triple chain and Ilari Mäkinen becomes the additional attacker. This is a big minus for the Club. Tappara gets into the game with exactly the same lineup as on Monday.
Cameron Wright’s absence should boost HPK by several percentage points. Tappara–HPK starts at 18:30.
The best betting tip of the day
In terms of betting, both of the quarter-final matches of the evening look so much like home wins that neither Pelicans nor HPK are worth trying even with their seemingly high odds of 4.90 and 6.50. The best game idea is quite atypically the 2.35 multiplier KooKoo x Tappara double formed from the winnings of the actual game times of the favorite duo. This is not a multiplier.
Games of the day: –
Total balance of the day’s games for the year: 47/75/116%
Every day Iltalehti chooses the most interesting game of the day and the best game destination of the day. You can always find them in the Betting and Ravit section.
