Kärpät hosts league leader Ilves in Wednesday’s five-match league round.
Ilves Tommi Tikka plays his 400th regular season game. Matti Raivio / AOP
The League’s Regular Series ends on Saturday, so the moments of decision are at hand.
Kärpät, who is in sixth place, tries to keep his place in the top six and take a direct quarter-final spot.
Ilves, on the other hand, is fighting for the win in the regular season with its local rival Tappara, who plays in Vaasa at the same time and had a bump in the opening set.
The lynx ruled
The first top place came with an underpowered Kärppien Arttu Hyryllebut the Ilves guard Marek Langhamer repelled. Playing his 400th league game soon after Tommi Tikka was able to find a flycatcher in the corresponding open place Leevi Meriläinen superiority.
Ilves won the shots in the opening set 14–5, but was ineffective in the shots. When at the end of the batch Henrik Haapala hit the post at the end of the drive, the second set started with a scoreless draw.
The team’s second point man Ville Leskinen is strikingly missing from the Kärppie lineup.
– Often, when the opponent leads by 2–3 goals, we forget a few things and let it go. We should have more of that. Everything starts to look slow if you have to think about too many things on that field, Leskinen said after Saturday’s HIFK loss to Kaleva.
– I have never heard of such a thing. Now that’s complete bullshit, Kärppie head coach Lauri Marjamäki banged after that in the one focusing on Kärppi On the Petopod podcast.
The widow was not mentioned by name, but now the player who asked about freedoms is on the sidelines.
HIFK, which is one point behind the slats and has played less in the match, was tied 1-1 against league jumbo SaiPa in Lappeenranta after the opening round.
Tapparalla is tumbling
Tappara, tied with Ilves but having played more matches, lost the opening set against Sport in Vaasa 0–1.
Tappara’s lack of points would open the possibility for Ilves to secure a regular season win already today. That would require a regular time win over Kärpi.
During its history, Ilves has reached first place in the regular season once. It happened 35 years ago in the 1987-88 season.
In Jyväskylä, KooKoo, who is tenth in the last playoff spot, lost the opening set to JYP 0–1.
In Pori, Ässät Pelicans were tied 1-1 after 20 minutes.
Iltalehti follows the progress of the matches in this story.