The season is under way ! The remodeling of the rink (2 meters narrower) and repainting and -modeling of the stands really make a difference.
The team, on paper, looks like an championship contender, but yesterdays level of readyness left a lot to wish for. Apart from a few rare fragments of organized hockey most of the action had a signature of "early days" on it. Lots of missed chances and passes bad marking and lack of calm in decisive actions.
The reports from the pre-season proved to be accurate: players like Rafalski, Karalahti on defence and Davidsson, Tuomainen and Ruuttu on offence have brought lots of talent to the side.
Jan Caloun was totally lost, though and Timonen has not found his right spot as of yet.
The actual game was decided on higher level of determination and aggression in the home team. The K-Espoo goals came all on defensive mistakes; whereas away goalie Siekkinen has to improve his awareness of what is going on beside the net.
HIFK goals:
1-1 Tuomainen; rebound on Hurmes shot.
2-2 Hurme; from behind the goal via back of goalies pad.
3-2 Vesterinen; almost similar goal
4-3 Linna; gets puck from face-off rounds all exact copy of third
.
Stars:
#1 Linna
#2 Rafalski
#3 Tuomainen