FINLAND, – Last night’s games offered a lot of drama and a few surprises. Perhaps the most expected news was that JYP was the first team to proceed to the next round after completing a sweep against Ilves. The win was costly though for the Jyvaskyla side as it lost Sami Vatanen to a knee injury. Vatanen, an Anaheim Ducks’ prospect, collided with an Ilves player and twisted his knee on the play. There was no penalty called on the play as the collision and knee-on-knee impact was unintentional. Early reports are saying that Vatanen will be out for 2-4 weeks, pending further medical examination. The loss was also the last time that Ilves captain Pasi Maattanen, 38, graced the ice. Maattanen had announced at the start of the season that this would be his final season in the league. During his career Maattanen took part in 769 SM-Liiga regular season matches and score 440 points. HIFK – Jokerit For a while it looked like Jokerit would take a choke hold on the series after another close fought match. HIFK took the lead late in the first only to see Jokerit tie and go up 2-1 after the second period. However, HIFK forced overtime in the nick of time with only seconds left to spare on the clock. The overtime hero emerged from the HIFK roster as veteran player Kimmo Kuhta found the net after five minutes of play in the overtime. Jokerit received some relieving news after Teemu Pulkkinen was released from hospital following an infection in his kidneys. Pulkkinen was in the stands to watch Wednesday’s match and joined his team mates on the ice for training on Thursday afternoon. It was reported in Helsinki news that the latest match at HIFK’s home rink ended up costing a few spectators more than just the price of the ticket. It was reported that over 200 parking tickets were handed out during the game to cars parked in the vicinity of the rink. The series is now tied 2-2. Lukko – Kalpa Where Lukko has had trouble with Kalpa earlier in the series, it looked like game 4 carried on the trend. Despite Lukko winning the last meeting, it was Kalpa who seemed to have the early momentum. The game was tied at 1-1 all the way until the third period when Canadian Kurtis McLean scored to make it 2-1. During the last five minutes of the game the crowd was treated to four goals, three of which were scored by Lukko. The final score was 5-2.
The series is tied 2-2 Assat – Blues Assat, if anyone were playing with a knife to their throat. A loss would’ve meant early summer holidays for the team. Blues had been in control of the series from early on and Assat needed something to spark up the team. The game saw plenty of fireworks, for one team at least. Assat took early control of the game and kept running away. After the first period the score was 2-0. The trend continued as Assat were pumping in the goals left, right and centre. In the third period when the score was 4-0, the match turned into a minor fight fest with Blues Oskari Korpikari and Mikael Kurki were involved in a scuffle with Assat Severi Sillanpaa and Ryan Caldwell. Assat won the game 5-1, but the win was costly as Assat lost its top point scorer, Tuomas Santavuori. According to Yle Sport, Santavuori would be out for the rest of the year, a rumour that Assat press officer was quick to deny. According to a statement, “Santavuori did leave the game, but there is no official statement on the severity of his injury.”
Blues lead the series 3-1 Contact Janne.Virtanen@prohockeynews.com
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