HIFK-Kalpa 3.10.1996 13-2

13-2

The result says it all ! Kalpa don´t belong in the premier-league if yesterdays performance is their normal level. Obviously they´ve always relied on their goalie Kuivalainen to do most of the job for them, but this year that is not enough. Last night Kuivalainen played poorly and conceded 6 goals in the first 10.06 min. until he was replaced by young Luostarinen who suffered even more of the absence of support from his team-mates.

HIFK play a propaganda style hockey with beautiful goals and a lot of them. The dominant line was Laukkanen-Murano-Eriksson with the wingers enjoying the non-physical game and rugged Murano scored a hattrick.

On the whole the crowd loved the spirit of HIFK 6-1 lead after 1st period and still continuing to play hockey. Ove Molin and Jarkko Ruutu (2) scored their first goals in the league.

Ruutu-Jokinen-Kortelainen had brilliant game with the old maestro Mika Kortelainen (C) scoring one and setting up the others for a total of five goals. Olli Jokinen scored his first hat-trick of the season and of his career.

Defensively HIFK were not tested to much, but worrying tendencies can still be seen. Clearing the puck out of the zone looks at times too difficult and Linna & Kultanen and Ahola have timely problems with quick skating agile forwards. Lehtonen, Karalahti are the two stalwarts and Kuztnetsov lacks ice-time and therefore unforced errors.

Stars of the game were: *** Laukkanen, ** Jokinen, * Murano

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