The ice hockey CHL quarterfinal match in Lahti had to be stopped in the middle of the first round.
The jury tried in vain to fix the ice when the CHL ads caused problems. Tomi Natri / AOP
The Pelicans will face the Czech Vitkovice Ridera in the first leg of the quarterfinals.
The first half only lasted 11 minutes until the referees had to stop it and order the teams to the locker rooms.
The suspension was due to the poor condition of the ice.
– There are really big dents in the ice, and it’s really dangerous, Viaplay’s narrator Nuitti Vihtilä take care
– In a game situation, you can’t just avoid big, deep blocks.
The playing field had not had time to freeze well enough after it had to be redone due to the installation of the CHL’s own advertisements. Even the fabric of the advertising sheet under the ice sparkled through the ice.
The patching attempts of the referees and field staff did not yield results.
– We are trying to repair the ice as much as possible, the hall announcer Ili Varmavuo informs the audience after twenty minutes of the game.
After this, the ice began to be renovated with a “zamboni”.
When that didn’t help either, twenty minutes later new information came again.
The ice is peeled off CHL’s own advertisements, the advertisements are removed and the ice is refrozen. According to Varmavuo’s announcement, this will take about an hour, after which the match should be able to continue.
In addition to the Pelicans, two other Finnish teams will be seen in the CHL playoffs.
The match between HC Innsbruck and Luko starts in Austria at 21:20 Finnish time.
Ilves opens the playoffs on Wednesday, when it will host the Czech Dynamo Pardubice.