5 VS 1
5 VS 1
Nieminen excels his play and team in to finals !
HIFK 5 Blues 1, 1999-04-06
Yes, we are in the finals, but what a boring series. After the tight and extremely exiting quarter-finals one would have hoped for more, but HPK let us down really badly. I hope the final series will prove worthy of their status as otherwise this years edition of the play-offs will go down as the most boring in near history.
The positive features in yesterday´s game were the continued physical presence and composure of the line with, play-off scoring leader, #22 Mika Kortelainen, rejuvenated #40 Mika Nieminen and stalwart center #24 Toni Sihvonen. Of these Nieminen could well get back in favor and join Sihvonen in the National Team for the World Championships.
The finals against regular season winners TPS, Turku should have all the necessary ingredients for a great showdown between the, now undoubtedly, top two teams in the country.
Many, of us, that feel TPS is the dream opponent as they play a pretty similar style of hockey. Look for hard hitting and fast attractive hockey.
Yesterday´s Starting Lines:
Outstanding players of the night were:
Tuomainen / Borsato / Caloun (altern. wingers)
Kortelainen / Sihvonen / Nieminen
Mäkiaho / Ahonen / J.Ruutu
Heiskanen / Baker / Laaksonen(Kalto)
Kultanen / Karalahti
Lydman / Rafalski
Nikko / Rajala
Thomas
Nieminen ***
Kortelainen **
Thomas *