Teemu Turunen, playing his first season in Kärpi, has heard about spring 2019 in the locker room.
- Turunen won the championship in 2019 in HPK, which defeated Kärpät in the finals.
- Today, Turunen attacks in the ranks of Kärppie against HIFK, his club from last season.
– Really good thing to do. We could be a little better on the defensive end, but it’s been pretty good as a team, Teemu Turunen sums up the early season of Kärppi.
Turunen returned to the League and HIFK in the middle of last season as the second best scorer of the Jokers after the club’s KHL campaign ended, but did not score a goal in the 11 matches he played.
– Yes, it left a bit of a dent and room for improvement. It didn’t go as it should have, he repeats the spring in the ranks of HIFK.
– Even then, we had a good team and were aiming for the championship, but I wasn’t able to help the team. There was a pretty long break from games and the like, so the rest of the season went pretty poorly.
“Change from the same” is defined as getting sick. That explains the man’s only two playoff games. However, the team didn’t have many of them either: HIFK bowed out in the quarterfinals in game seven for TPS.
King pace
Now Turunen’s balance in seven Kärppie matches is 4+4=8, and the pace per match is at the top-3 level in the league.
With a table of constant speed, Turunen would collect 34+34=68 outputs. For comparison: Tapparan Anton Levtchi won both the points exchange and the goal kingship last season with a balance of 26+35=61.
– Well, the season is long and there is still room for improvement in our own performance, Turunen commented on the scenario that would most certainly bring the Liiga stock market win.
– Scores don’t tell everything. Now I have happened to go inside, but I could improve a bit on defense, among other things.
It’s true that maintaining the power pace of the first games throughout the season is, to put it in a buzzword, challenging.
– The team’s championship is the most important thing to me, Turunen answers the question about personal statistical goals.
– Of course, when you get to play a lot and play with superiority, you should get some points. But I don’t have any score goals.
Teemu Turunen has been successful in scoring against Ilves, among others. Mika Kylmäniemi / AOP
Turunen, 26, was originally raised by the Jokers. He entered the league six years ago in HPK and won the rookie point exchange with 11+19=30.
The Hämeenlinnan years culminated in a sensational championship in the spring of 2019, when it was Kärpät who had to bow to the Club in a wild seven-match final series.
With his record points of 20+34=54, Turunen was third in the stock exchange in the regular season, and in the playoff stock exchange, the ranking improved by another notch.
In the composition of the Kärppie, there are still a few players who were left behind at that time.
– There are no ugly things left. In a sense of humor, there has been a little basic acknowledgment, Turunen says about the things in the dressing room.
– I have been able to check back, he laughs.
– It’s been a good-natured thing, and now we’re fighting with Kärppie for that championship.
“Latella effect”
After the Golden Jubilee, HIFK picked Turunen into their ranks for the 2019–20 season, and 51 points in only 43 matches showed that the powers were stored.
In the 2020–21 season, he played for HC Davos, Switzerland, and in the spring got a World Cup silver medal around his neck.
His career continued to rise when Turunen moved to an even tougher league last season. However, Pesti in the KHL was interrupted for known reasons.
Now he plays in Kärpi with a two-year contract.
– A good team was built in Kärpi and we were aiming for the championship again. It interested me, and of course “Late” also had an influence on it, Turunen backs up his move by referring to a coach known from Jokers Lauri Marjamäki.
– We talked about the role and other things, and there were a lot of familiar players in the team. It sounded good, and it was cool to get to Kärpp.
Turunen has played in the early rounds of the League Peter Tiivolan in a leading three-pointer, where one side is stepped on Kasper Björkqvist.
– Good gamblers and they work really hard, Turunen characterizes his chain friends.
– Nice to play with them.
Hard reinforcements
Kärpät is the most successful league club of the 21st century with its eight championships, seven of which have come this millennium.
However, it’s been a while since the Golden Jubilee: the Canada Cup was last acquired by the people of Oulu in the spring of 2018.
Last season, Marjamäki’s arrival in the middle of the season from the Jokers as the head coach brought attitude to the Kärppi’s game, but the road was broken after the sixth place in the regular season in the quarterfinals against Ilves.
Kärpät started this season to clearly raise his profile.
That’s what the amazing acquisitions at the league level tell us: the defenders Tommi Kivistö and David Rundblad and forwards Turunen, Tiivola, Björkqvist, Joonas Kemppainen, Cody Kunyk and Marko Anttila.
The team started the season almost like reigning champion Tappara as the gold favorite and has performed accordingly.
In the league table, Kärpät is only seventh, but the ranking is unclear, because it has played 1-3 matches less than the others. Kärppi’s scoring average (2.143) is the best in the series.
HIFK–Kärpät
Today, Kärpät visits Helsinki’s Nordenskiöldinkatu puck sanctuary, where HIFK is trying to correct its miserable course in the early season. The team is in 14th place, i.e. second last.
The opponent is familiar to Turunen.
– A tough game coming up. IFK has a good team this year as well, and when there haven’t been any wins, it will surely put everything on the line. You have to be ready for it right from the start.