FINLAND – The SM-Liiga playoffs got off to a start, as well as the relegation battle between Mestis champions Vaasan Sport and SM-Liiga’s bottom runner Ilves. The days leading up to the playoffs were fuelled with controversy as Jokerit sent one of its leading scorers back to its junior system.
The player in question is Teemu Pulkkinen, a Detroit RedWings prospect. Pulkkinen was the leading scorer for Jokerit for the majority of the season but the latter half of the season saw his production decline. At the end of the regular season Pulkkinen was the second highest point scorer on the Jokerit roster. Prior to Pulkkinen being sent down, he was spotted at Jokerit training playing as a defence-man as he did not fit in with any of the forward lines. Pulkkinen has been playing in the Jokerit A-Juniors final against cross town rivals HIFK.
Speaking of HIFK, one player had the same fate as Pulkkinen as HIFK sent down Calgary Flames prospect Markus Granlund. Granlund has had an impressive start to his SM-Liiga career, but has been struggling of late. The move follows comments from the Flames organisation saying that they have been impressed with Granlund’s play whilst admitting that he is lagging behind compared to some of their other prospects.
HIFK – Jokerit
The battle for Helsinki is probably one of the most anticipated play-off series around. Both teams have star studded rosters, with HIFK boasting players like Ville Peltonen, Mikael Granlund, Janne Pesonen to name a few and Jokerit being home to former NHL agitator Jarkko Ruutu, Ilari Filppula, Janne Lahti and Ben Eaves.
Jokerit faced some adversity for the first two games of the series as its head coach, Erkka Westerlund had received a two game ban from the league for abusing officials at the end of the regular season.
After two games the situation is the same as last year. Jokerit are up 2-0 in the series. However, like last year, HIFK came from behind to claim the series and march to the championship. Since the days of Jokerit and TPS dominance it has been incredibly difficult to win back to back championships and many insiders are saying that HIFK is not the same team as last year and is likely that the team will relinquish its crown this season.
KalPa – Blues
The regular season winners, KalPa, were matched with Espoo Blues, a team that came into the main playoffs through the system affectionately known as “pitty-playoffs”. Last season Blues went from the early playoff series all the way to the final, in which HIFK was way ahead of the team.
KalPa has been tipped as the favourites in the series, but is missing a couple of key players in Sami Kapanen and Adam Mashur. In the spirit of playoffs, KalPa’s head coach Tuomas Tuokkola commented on the players’ status by saying “Sami’s return is likely closer than Adam’s. Or then vice versa.”
On the ice KalPa has won the first two games by scorelines of 3-1 at home and then beating the Blues 0-1 on Blues’ home ice. KalPa’s goalie Mikko Koskinen has been on good form, but credit has to be given to Blues’ goalie Antti Ore as well. Ore was playing in Mestis during the regular season, but when Blues had more injured goalies than healthy ones, Ore was called up on loan basis. His game impressed the Blues coaching staff and sooner than he knew it, he had signed a contract to stay with the team on a permanent basis.
Pelicans – Karpat
Pelicans have been flying high since appointing ‘the rainmaker’ coach Kai Suikkanen as its head coach. Suikkanen turned around the struggling TPS team and lead them to SM-Liiga championships two years ago. Between his stint at TPS and Pelicans, Suikkanen was the head coach of Yaroslav Lokomotiv a year before the tragic plane crash that claimed the team at the start of the season.
Pelicans received some potentially devastating news as number one goalie and Philadelphia Flyers prospect Niko Hovinen was ruled out of action after game 1. There has been no official word or timeline of recovery for Hovinen as yet. However, Suikkanen has said that the goaltending issue is not cause for concern for the team.
Hovinen who played in the first game of the series agains Oulun Karpat, won the game for his team before being forced out. In the second meeting between Karpat and Pelicans, Karpat were strong early on, but Pelicans showed grit and determination to claw back a three goal deficit to force overtime. However, Karpat were decisive in overtime and took the game to make the series 1-1.
Assat – JYP
Anaheim Ducks defensive prospect, Sami Vatanen has become the hot topic of the playoffs for JYP. After a tumultuous start to the year with head coach Risto Dufva leaving the team and a poor start to the season, JYP has been playing steady hockey and achieving good results.
As for Vatanen, he has been one of the key players offensively. The offensive defence man has been showing same flair he showed in the World Juniors a few years ago when he went coast to coast against the Czechs. JYP has won both the games of the series so far with scores of 4-1 and 2-1.
The Assat team has been relatively helpless in gaining control of the game against the JYP system. JYP is known for taking the lead and Assat have been unable to respond in the games. The Finnish media is tipping JYP to take a commanding 3-0 series lead after the next game.
Relegation playoffs: Ilves – Vaasan Sport
Vaasan Sport is trying to make it to the SM-Liiga for the second time in three years. In the first game Ilves, the bottom runner of the SM-Liiga showed the difference between the two leagues. The game was a total rout for Ilves as Masi Marjamaki had recorded four goals in the first period alone. Sport was completely helpless against the Ilves team and could not respond to anything Ilves did, despite being in control of the game’s first few minutes. The final score of the game was 6-1 to Ilves.
Contact Janne.Virtanen@prohockeynews.com
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