FINLAND – The SM-Liiga playoffs saw a few series come to an end and perhaps the most shocking of them all was the series between last years’ champions HIFK and Jokerit in the battle of Helsinki. Elsewhere, the leagues disciplinary board fined Pelicans head coach Kai Suikkanen €2,500 for criticising the refereeing in a post game press conference.
The HIFK – Jokerit series was tipped to be one of the most hotly and fiercely fought series in the first round of the playoffs. However, HIFK was not able to muster much together during the series as it was outplayed by the Jokerit squad, that many said was weaker compared to HIFK’s. Indeed, HIFK came into this season with more name players than last year when it won the title.
Perhaps one of the biggest fish to land in HIFK’s net was forward Janne Pesonen who signed as a free agent after failing to secure a place on the Winnipeg Jets’ roster.
The fourth meeting between the two teams ended in Jokerit 4-0 win, with Dane Nichlas Hardt scoring the goal that would stand as the game winner at 3:19 into the first period. HIFK did pour a barrage of shots on the Jokerit net in the third period but, goalie Eero Kilpelainen was an impenetrable wall in goal.
After the game was over, the rink was filled with beach balls, rubber canoes and other beach paraphernalia to mark the start of HIFK’s summer holiday. After the game was done, the #smliiga hashtag on Twitter was filled with messages proclaiming that HIFK’s Mikael Granlund has played his last game in the league in a long, long while.
While nothing has been announced as yet, it is anticipated that the talented youngster will sign an NHL contract with Minnesota Wild sooner rather than later.
The other team that completed the sweep in their series was JYP who beat Assat 4-1 in the fourth meeting between the teams. Where Assat did score the first goal of the game, JYP were a stronger team in the game as it had been throughout the series. However, the win was costly for JYP as it lost its young defence-man, Sami Vatanen. Vatanen sustained an ankle injury after a hit.
JYP has announced that Vatanen will be out ‘for weeks’. However, the exact length of his absence will be clear after he will undergo an MRI examination of his ankle once the swelling has gone down.
JYP head coach, Jyrki Aho, said in a statement, “It is really unfortunate and frustrating for Sami (Vatanen) to sustain an injury. However, our team has played good winning hockey through the second half of the season. The last time Sami was out for six weeks with an injury this season we changed the line-up constantly and managed to play good hockey. It gives us confidence that we are able to face adversities like these.”
KalPa was the other team that was close to a sweep with Blues, but Blues decided that it would not go without a fight. The Blues grinded out a 4-1 win from KalPa who were without their starting netminder Mikko Koskinen as he was serving his one game suspension. The biggest talking point of the game was a hit planted by KalPa’s Jukka Hentunen on Blues’ Camilo Miettinen.
Miettinen was cutting to the middle of the ice when Hentunen caught him from a blind angle. The hit was clean and one of the best ones seen this season, but as a result of the hit Miettinen was left sprawling on the ice for several minutes. However, Miettinen left the rink under his own steam, but was taken to the hospital for examinations, where it was diagnosed that Miettinen is suffering from a concussion and has a cartilage injury to his shoulder, rendering his season over. The video of the hit can be seen found by clicking here .
Despite the hit being clean and there being no contact to the head, Hentunen received a five minute major for charging, a 10 minute misconduct and was thrown from the game. It is possible that Hentunen will receive further disciplinary action as a result of the hit, though looking at the video there should be no more penalties being handed down.
In the last series Pelicans are in the ropes with Karpat, who were thought to have been pushovers for the Pelicans team. However, Pelicans have only mustered one win from the series and are potentially facing elimination after falling to a 3-1 deficit in the series, as the last meeting ended in a 4-1 for Karpat.
The encouraging news for Pelicans was that its number one netminder Niko Hovinen returned to action. Hovinen stopped 23 shots on his return, but was not able to help his team to a win.
Head coach Kai Suikkanen has his hands full as his team is facing elimination in the series.
Also prior to the game it was reported that Ryan Lasch and Jyri Marttinen of the Pelicans had fought during a training. According to Finnish sports outlet Veikkaaja, Pelicans would be looking to shop Marttinen at the end of the season, not only because of the alleged fight, but because of other undisclosed reasons.
Lasch was quick to deny the allegations on his Twitter account , “Marttinen and I have never fought or even came close to fighting bad reporting and story”.
Contact the author: janne.virtanen@prohockeynews.com
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