From the first whistle on you could see this one we were not going to loose. There was a certain air of determination present that has been invisible the last couple of weeks.
Unsung hero Kimmo Kuhta saw some more ice-time and opened the scoring from a zero angle. This helped his game immensly, but later on he faded, as I´m sorry to say, again. Other positive names were Tom Laaksonen (1+0)and Toni Mäkiaho (1+1). Mäkiaho is finally showing some of the flair that earned him a spot on the World Championships roster last spring.
In defence Scott Malone played his last game (not confirmed). He did alright, but truth is he could not convince me that he would make the top two defensive pairings. Quite on the contrary #6 Kari Rajala played very well last night and saw increasing ice-time including power- and box-plays. Rafalski did alright and Karalahti is improving his play. Siren was solid - not flashy and Kultanen and Lydman played their normal invisble but fully acceptable game.
Lines
Kortelainen-Nieminen-Tuomainen
Caloun-Hurme-J.Ruutu
Kuhta-Sihvonen-Mäkiaho
Kalto-Ahonen-Laaksonen
Rafalski-Kultanen
Lydman-Karalahti
Malone-Siren
Rajala
Bäckström
Scratches were: M.Ruutu (healthy), Borsato (shoulder), Nikko (arm), Hagman (healthy), Väisänen(healthy)
Stars:
*** Toni Mäkiaho
** Kari Rajala
* Niklas Bäckström