The semifinal teams in F-liiga women’s series are now known. TPS will play against Eräviikingit and Classic will take on SB-Pro.
TPS sealed its place in the semifinals on Wednesday, as they won Koovee for the third time with goals 14-5. Meri-Helmi Höynälä scored 4+4 points, which has been a point-record for a single game in the playoffs. Höynälä is now leading the playoffs’ player statistics with 8+5=13 points.
Eräviikingit lost their first two games against FBC Loisto and it looked like they were heading for a summer break. However, Eräviikingit stepped up and won their next two games 5-3 and 6-4, and finally made their way to semifinals by winning the last game 4-3 with Emma Parta scoring one minute before the end whistle. FBC Loisto’s Laura Pakarinen (5+4) and Ulla Valtola (5+2) as well as Inka Lippojoki (2+4) from Eräviikingit were important players for their teams in the series.
SaiPa surprised Classic in their first encounter in Lempäälä, as they did two years ago. This time, however, SaiPa could not quite make it to top four teams. Classic first tied the wins by winning their home-game 4-2 and sealed their place in the semifinals in the third game with goals 5-3. Top scorer in the game was Veera Vilenius from Classic with four goals and three assists.
SB-Pro and SSRA played a thrilling series, where three out of four games were taken to overtime. Firstly, SSRA and Pro both won away-games, after which SB-Pro took the lead by winning a home-game 2-1. In the final game in Oulu SB-Pro was stronger, Laura Hietamäki (2+7 in four games) and Mirja Hietamäki (6+1 in four games) took the lead and helped their team win 6-3.
F-liiga qualifiers are also ready for the second round. O2-Jyväskylä, Pirkat and Welhot won all of their first three games against FB Factor, SBS Wirmo and Blue Fox. Jokerit, however, played all five games before loosing the final one to a hungry Norther Stars 5-6.
