Oilers became the first team to reach F-liiga finals after Justus Kainulainen’s 3-2 overtime winner against TPS last night. Oilers won the series 4-2. In the other pair, Classic and Nokian KrP head onto game 7 after Classic’s 7-2 victory.
TPS’ superb defensive performance held Oilers goalless for 48 minutes with Olli Kinnunen and Nikolas Laaksonen giving them a 2-0 lead but then the Kainulainen brothers took over. Rasmus Kainulainen set Matias Veikkola up for an opening goal with a clever pass from behond the goal and Justus Kainulainen tied it up on a rebound from a breakaway he had prepared. In the overtime, Justus Kainulainen turned free by the boards and sent the decisive screamer into the far top corner.
In Tampere, Classic with four straight titles played with their back against the wall but came away alive after a hat-trick by Eemeli Salin. He scored the opener with just seconds into the game and in the second period Classic had three more. The fourth one was scored by Sami Johansson amidst quite a deal of commotion as the Nokia players were protesting an opening throw by Classic goalie Lassi Toriseva sailing way over the midline missed by the referees.
Game 7 will be played tomorrow.
