Jokerit kept their composure better in penalty ridden badly refereed game.
Early on, especially, Jokerit were very lacklustre and HIFK had most of the incentive, but a couple of near misses were the only results apart from the early go ahead goal scored on an counter attack by the fourth line.
After this the momentum turned away from HIFK and Jokerit could equalise and go ahead. For HIFK the game turned to be over as
several pp attemtps led to zero.
Itīs not very easy to find positive comments on too many of the HIFK players. The fight between Halkidis and fellow North-American Darren Stolk was a rare occurance in the
Finnish League in its brutality. Halkidis was (despite his 800
penalty minutes in the NHL) was definitely on the receiving end.
Stolk however should be suspended for the remainder of the season
since hitting an opponent lying on the ice is unacceptable.
Sihvonen got a fighting minor for helping out Halkidis. This was
clearly something he should have got five stars for in my book, but three is the maximum.
Stars:
#1 Toni Sihvonen
#2 Tim Thomas
#3 Kari Kalto