Pelicans secured a direct continuation spot – TPS sanded HIFK’s track

Young defender Topias Vilen scored the Pelicans’ second goal. Tomi Natri / AOP

In the penultimate round of the regular season, solutions were solved or approached in all key competitive issues.

Regular season win

CHL champion Tappara also ensured its first place in the SM league regular season by beating local opponent Ilves 5–3 in its last match.

The man of the night in the packed Nokia Arena was the Ilves defender Les Lancaster (1+2), which at the same time rose to the top of the Liiga defenders’ point exchange. Tappara was also the most effective defender, Maxim Matushkin (1+1).

On Saturday, Ilves will host HPK in a match where only the latter has a stake in terms of the league standings.

A direct quarter-final place

Pelicans secured a direct continuation spot, passed KalPa and grabbed the fourth place with home advantage, when they defeated Kuopio with 6–2 goals.

The match, which remained scoreless until halftime, broke into four Lahtelaisomazus in the latter half of the second period. Aatu Jämsen stretched his point streak with 1+1, and in the last three games he has captured six (3+3) points.

The Kuopio team’s loss also secured Luko’s third place and at the same time that Pelicans and KalPa will meet in the quarterfinals.

HIFK had a chance to get into the top six, but the visitor TPS had a different opinion and sought a 2–0 away win from Helsinki.

HIFK managed the match fine in terms of shots, but Lassi Lehtinen kept the Turku goal clean with 30 saves and had his seventh clean sheet of the season.

HIFK continues in seventh place with equal points with Kärppie, who are one step higher in the prestigious sixth place. The three-point wins are even, but the goal difference of the Oulu team is 13 goals better.

In practice, therefore, HIFK should feel sorry for the players in order to avoid getting more points from Jyväskylä on Saturday than Kärpät gets from Jukurei at home.

When Ässät unexpectedly stumbled in Vaasa, TPS overcame it and advanced to the first round of the playoffs instead of eighth, which brings home advantage.

Even one point for TPS from Saturday’s home game against KooKoo would ensure that the best-of-three series against Pori starts on Monday in Turku.

In the 3–0 victory, Sport’s heroes had opened their points account in the League and scored twice Vainö Sirki and recorded his second clean sheet of the season with 22 saves Rasmus Reijola.

The last playoff spot

HPK and KooKoo, who were a point away from Jukurei, which held tenth place, were tight in their home games, but both of them eventually won and passed the Mikkeli team.

In the middle of the third period, KooKoo, who was still two goals behind, joined the persistent SaiPa, and Samuli Ratinen A 4-3 overtime hit decided the extra point for the hosts.

However, it wasn’t enough to get the team over the line, as HPK’s 1-2 start in the third period brought them full points with 4-2 goals. The 3–2 winning goal was scored by a player who returned to the roster after a long absence Aleksi Mustonen with superiority in time 58.25.

This way, HPK starts the final round from a valuable tenth place, followed by KooKoo and Jukurit by one point each.

In the case of tied points, the order would be reversed and Jukurit, which took the most three-point victories, would take the last playoff spot.

Everyone plays away on Saturday, when the matches are Ilves–HPK, TPS–KooKoo and Kärpät–Jukurit.

So it became curly, and there is enough excitement until the end.