ESPOO, FINLAND – Game two of the SM-Liiga Final saw plenty of action and a questionable call. The talk after the game was not about the score or where the two finalists could improve, but on a hit layed on HIFK’s Siim Liivik by Blues’ Ville Varakas. Varakas hit Liivik in the second period of the game when Liivik was reaching to receive a stretch pass from his own zone. Liivik did a near mid-air summersault as a result of the hit. The referees called Varakas for a five-minute major for charging and awarded him a game misconduct to boot. It was the harshness of the call that had people talking and Blues head coach Petri Matikainen was quoted saying in a TV interview for Nelonen Sport Pro “I think it was a clean hit. If you wanted to give a penalty for it, give him two minutes. The five minute major was a wrong call.” One Finnish hockey legend, Esa Tikkanen, was particularly displeased by the referee’s decision and was steaming in a post game press release issued by UniBet. Tikkanen, a five time Stanley Cup champion and one of the NHL’s premier pests during his career said “Varakas laid a nice, clean open ice hit. That was 100% pure hit and what do the referees do – give him 5+20! Where is Finnish hockey going, can we even rub players on the boards anymore? I can understand that people want to take out direct hits to the head and dirty plays, but we are talking about ice hockey here, a contact sport. When we see a clean hit we see a key player penalised.” Many HIFK fans flocked to internet discussion boards and news paper comments sections to say that the hit was clean and one of the best ones they had seen the whole year. They also gave credit to their own for getting up after the hit and skating to the bench. Liivik was not seriously hurt and remained in the game. Whether or not you think that the hit was worth five minutes, you can see the video here . Also note the delightfully yellow helmets the referees wear. Also a side note, Varakas is wearing a gold helmet, which denotes the teams’ top point scorer. However, during the five minute penalty kill, Blues tried to clear the puck out of their zone only for it to go over the plexi glass and to go down to a three on five kill. HIFK made no mistake and punished Blues on the power play to make it 1-0. The Varakas hit wasn’t the only big one seen in the game in the first period, HIFK’s Mikko Kurvinen hit Oskari Korpikari with such force that the plexi-glass came off its hinges. HIFK got a second goal from Robert Nyholm, who scored the winner in game 1, to make it 2-0. Then not soon after Nyholm’s goal Kimmo Kuhta got away on a breakaway and capitalised on his opportunity to make it 3-0. Blues got a goal on power play to make it 3-1 at 56.51. Before the end of the game, HIFK added two more goals. One from captain Ville Peltonen and one from Juha-Pekka Haataja, who scored the first of the game, sealed it at 5-1. HIFK now leads the series 2-0. This is the first time during the play offs that Blues has been trailing in a series. Whether the team can dig deep and turn the series. Contact the author: janne.virtanen@prohockeynews.com
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