Ilves suffered another tough loss and lost ground in the standings as TPS won 4-3 in overtime. Anssi Salmela collected his first point of the season and Eetu Mäkiniemi made 20 saves.
Slow start
Liiga’s standings give a good reflection of the start of the game: the margins are not too big between Ilves and TPS. As the teams faced each other in Hakametsä yesterday there could have been some fatigue in the air. Both goalies faced only two shots during the first ten minutes of the first period.
TPS scored the first goal of the evening at 10:10. Ville Lajunen got too much space and time and the defenseman shot the puck past Eetu Mäkiniemi, who was badly screened. Ilves evened the scoring immediately as Miro Nalli scored only 22 seconds later. Eetu Päkkilä gave a perfect saucer pass to Nalli who scored his fifth of the season. The hard-working forward was surrounded by two TPS players, but he was able to lift the puck past TPS’ goalie Andrei Karejev.
Ilves got a couple chances on powerplay before the first intermission. There was no second goal in sight, though and the powerplay was still struggling to reach its best potential. The first period was a bit weird because the goalies faced only three shots each.
Anyone’s game
Third powerplay opportunity was the charm for Ilves. At 23:12 Panu Mieho deflected his eight goal of the season from point blank range. Assists were collected by Matias Myttynen and Anssi Salmela, his first point of the season.
Ilves faced time on the penalty kill as Kalle Maalahti got 2+10minutes for boarding at 32:23. The penalty was just over when TPS tied the game at 34:24. There was a scramble in front of Mäkiniemi and a shot from the blueline got deflected from TPS’ own player’s equipment.
Like yesterday, the game was 2-2 after 40 minutes. The control of the game was up for grabs for both teams as neither had long-lasting momentum. Moreover, the second period was highlighted by offsides and icings.
One point to Tampere
TPS took the lead on powerplay at 44:59 as Mieho got a minor for holding at the beginning of third period. Mäkiniemi had no chance to stop the shot that was taken from point blank range. Once again, Ilves tied the game almost immediately at 47:41. Eemeli Suomi served a great pass to Ville Meskanen who got a sort of a breakaway opportunity. His sharp snapshot slipped through Karejev’s pads.
Other than that, the rest of the period included way too many penalties. Ilves had a chance in powerplay but that did not grant decent scoring opportunities. Same was with TPS as they had a couple chances on powerplay. Overtime was needed.
TPS got the extra point. At 60.20 Josh Kestner scored the game-winning goal on powerplay. The goal meant that TPS passed Ilves in the standings.
