The Finnish Cup titles 2022-2023 were decided in Hämeenlinna that hosted the women’s and men’s semifinals and finals. Classic succesfully defended their title in the men’s Cup and for women, TPS extended their undefeated streak from F-liiga.
In the women’s semi-finals TPS beat Classic 5-1 and in the other one it took Aino Tuokkola’s overtime goal for SB-Pro to win 3-2 against EräViikingit. In the final, SB-Pro held on for quite a while but were eventually beaten 7-4. A sweet victory for TPS for whom the cup title was the second ever after losing against PSS last year.
The highlight of the men’s weekend surely was the first semi-final where last year’s F-liiga finalists Classic and Nokian KrP took on another. The Nokia team has beaten the reigning champions twice in this year’s F-liiga regular season but once again Classic performed their best when it counted and bounced back from 1-4 to a 7-6 win. In the other semifinal, M-Team who lead Finland’s second highest level Inssi-Divari gave F-liiga team OLS a hard time for 50 minutes but were then beaten by 7-4.
In the final, Classic on an upward trend were way too much for OLS who have been struggling in F-liiga and the final result 9-0 tells everything one needs to know.
It was the first big title for legendary Juha Kivilehto as Classic’s head coach and Lassi Toriseva recorded the second ever shutout in men’s cup final history. The previous one was from 1992 when Josba’s Vesa Turunen left Jönni goalless in a 1-0 win.
Photos: Juhani Järvenpää
