Tappara and Pelicans played a tight battle in Tampere.
Ben Blood and Luke Witkowski roughing each other up. Mika Kylmäniemi
Tappara defeated Pelicans 2–1 in Thursday night’s only league match.
With the win, the reigning champion rose to 111 points, and after a brisk month’s break, returned to the first place in the standings, overtaking local rival Ilves (109 points). The Pelicans are tied for third in the series with the Kärppi.
Blood heated up the emotions
The match went smoothly until almost halfway.
However, the hall came to life in a new way, when the Pelicans’ pack jitters Ben Blood showed his toughness on the defensive end in the second period. The audience was spoiled by the American’s counter strike Kristian Tanus, who collected himself for a moment after the hard work. After this, Blood had to fight with one of the ax shirts.
The hassle turned to the guests’ advantage, as they found space on the wing Patrik Carlsson released Ryan Laschin to score. Pelicans’ point-shark’s slashing shot tied the match at 1–1.
After the goal, the whistle concert in the hall ended. Also the commander of Tappara Rikard Grönborg gave feedback to the judges, but the match was continued from the center circle.
Pelicans got a hold of the game after the equalizer, but momemtum dried up with Blood’s blocking ice. Immediately after the end of the second one Heikki Liedes managed to score the 100th league goal of his career, which gave Tappara a 2–1 lead.
The home team’s first goal was scored at the beginning of the second period Carter Camper.
Kiri sagged
In the third round, the playoff spirit of the fight was too much for Blood. The man watered down the Pelicans’ equalizing intentions to a pointless struggle in the middle area in 16:48.
The evenness of the match is indicated by the fact that only ten saves were recorded for the goalkeepers of both teams. The Pelicans entered the game injured Johan Gustafsson and sick Niklas Kokkoabut brought along from the club’s A juniors Niklas Nikkilä18, made quite a convincing save against the visitors’ goal.
Tappara was guarding the goal Christian Heljanko.