7 VS 3
7 VS 3
Soft "Knight" no test in Game 1!
HIFK 7 Blues 3, 1999-04-03
After the explosive quarter-final series this one was something different. The capacity (7980) crowd never got their money´s worth. HPK had quite a lot of the posession and scoring changes
but initially the game was ours. As an early HIFK rush resulting in two quite easy tallies by Heiskanen and Kortelainen very much set the script for the game.
What HPK, unlike Blues, not mastered was the physical part of the game and they capitalised on their chances with a very poor percentage.
The HIFK heavy artillery (Kortelainen-Sihvonen-Nieminen) was the most succesful combination with Kortelainen scoring twice. Other players well deserving a mentioning are Heiskanen, who goes from strenght to strenght in these play-offs games, Ahonen and for once we saw a Jarkko Ruutu that can play hockey.Brian Rafalski had a night off nothing flashy, either way. Karalahti was solid despite 3 minor penalties for high sticking. D Jarno Kultanen was ejected quite easily for high sticking and could face suspension due an earlier major penalty for fighting. This is not verified however.
Hurme was injured and did only play a couple of shifts in the second and stood over the third.C Jamie Baker enjoyed the game in the HIFK box together with suspended RW Jan Caloun, but there´s no word out on whether hes injured or an healthy scratch. Having seen his bleak perfomances of late I would assume he´s a healthy scratch.
Second game at HPK on Monday should be different, but with Caloun returning this one could come in three games.
Yesterday´s Starting Lines:
scratches were: Baker and From
Outstanding players of the night were:
Tuomainen / Borsato / Hurme (altern. wingers)
Kortelainen / Sihvonen / Nieminen
Mäkiaho / Kalto / J.Ruutu
Heiskanen / Ahonen / Laaksonen(M.Ruutu)
Kultanen / Karalahti
Lydman / Rafalski
Nikko / Rajala
Thomas
Kortelainen ***
Nieminen **
Thomas *