There are just under four minutes left in the TPS–Ässät match, which is progressing in an exciting tie, when the visitors’ Eemil Erholtz drives into the goal.
Karri Kivi was like being hit on the head with a tree when Ässät experienced a judicial murder in Turku. Elmeri Elo / AOP
TPS pack Taneli Ronkainen crank Eemil Erholtz ronsk with a combination of a hook and a high stick the goalkeeper Lassi Lehtinen on. The mask of Lehtinen, who remains the lowest, comes off his head.
The head judge who sees the situation up close Petri Lindqvist hand goes up. Ronkainen looks at the judge with a guilty look, but to everyone’s surprise, Erholtz is ordered to the ice shelf – the reason being violence.
A moment later Jonne Tammela hits with TPS’s 2–1 winning goal, and the decision of the match series of the first round of the playoffs moves to Pori on Thursday.
– It was solved when a player from Teps pushed our attacker on top of his own goalkeeper and that’s cool, Ässie head coach Karri Kivi stated looking shocked at the press conference.
The man was hot to the eye, but controlled his nerves admirably.
Väähy became the decisive small margin that playoff games tend to be decided by.
With a very accurate interpretation, you can see that Erholtz tore Lehtinen’s mask off his head when he fell, but that would be a mistake – or it was. There would have been at least equally compelling reasons for Ronkainen’s freeze.
However, TPS’s victory cannot be called an injustice, as it won, for example, the shots crushingly 65–30.