Ilves 4-0 Sport – Ilves Still in SM-Liiga
Well that is it, I started this blog last summer and have commented on each and every game we’ve played, it’s been a very poor season from us but we’ve still had plenty of high points, beating Tappara 8-7 in the opening game was just amazing. I’m gonna keep this blog up and continue to talk about all things Ilves, possibly even our football team which is looking for promotion this year! Also our Futsal team which is in the final!
As for our 4-0 game, I watched it on MestisTV, which was quite a good service. We played well and Toskala was a brick wall in goal for us, amazing stuff, I hope we can bring in some more really good players in the summer, we need to try and rebuild much like Pelicans have, 365 days ago they were in their own Mestis play-off fighting for survival and now look at them, finished 2nd in the league and are currently the favourites to get their first championship as “Pelicans”.
Sport were very good and their fans are absolutely fantastic, I’m not sure if any SM-Liiga team could match them for effort, especially if they too were in Mestis. I hope one day they do come up, but not at our expense. Sport could bring a lot to SM-Liiga and it would be nice to see a change amongst the 14 and give players/fans a new game on the calendar to get excited about and a new place to visit on a drunk fanimatka.
Thanks to everyone who has bothered to visit my blog over the season!
Sport 2-3 Ilves JA
Game 4
YESSSSS!!!!!!
Really bad start to the game but what a comeback, it started off badly when we took two penalties early on and Sport scored on the 4 on 4 through Miika Koivisto on 13 minutes, we played poorly and didn’t do enough in the first period.
It took just four minutes before we did score when Samuli Kivimäki (Kangasniemi, Jokipakka) haunted Sport again on the powerplay. Just under 10 minutes later though Jani Kiviniemi restored Sports lead and the second period finished 2-1.
Another perfect start to the third period as Henri Tuominen (Kantola, Välimaa) scored 5 minutes into it, both Ilves and Sport took yet more penalties but the 60minute game ended 2-2.
Sport won two of their Mestis final games in overtime against Jokipojat so they were used to this scenario, if Ilves were to lose this game there would be amazing pressure on Ilves in the next game at Hakametsä, thankfully Ilves scored thanks to Tommi Välimaa!!!! We won 3-2 and now we just need 1 more win from a possible 3 remaining games.
It is looking extremely likely that Ilves will retain our SM-Liiga position for next season, I’m feeling so relieved right now 
Ilves 0-2 Sport
Game 3
Wow that really was awful, our first home loss in quite a while and to be shut-out against a mestis team, it’s pretty embarrassing, but we still have the series lead and 2 home games to come (if needed).
I’ll keep this brief but Mika Halava scored first after 13 minutes of the opening period, and then Sport scored again with Jussi Tapio at the start of the 3rd period. Ilves had many chances and Sport took 7 penalties which we couldn’t take advantage of, Laitinen saved 32/32.
Game 4 in Vaasa is a really important game, if we win then we will be just about safe in SM-Liiga for another season, but if Sport win on Saturday then they will be level with us at 2-2 in the series and we will be in some extreme pressure for game 5 at Hakametsä.
Big game today and the Ilves fans are taking some buses over on the fanimatka, hopefully they will be celebrating a great win, it doesn’t need to be 6-1 or 5-1 again but just any kind of win will be fine, lets do this.
Sport 1-5 Ilves
Game 2
Toskala was in goals for our first of the away game of the series and he was immediately having to pick the puck out of the back of the net when Hakomäki scored just 3mins 44seconds into the first period and Sport had the great start that we enjoyed in game one.
Shortly after Teemu Kesä took a penalty and I started to fear the worst but amazingly Arto Tukio (Sointu) scored shorthanded and made it 1-1. Joonas Rask (Sointu, Myttynen) gave us the lead when he scored just before the end of the first period.
The second period started with a series of penalties but the third goal wasn’t scored until 31minutes when Sointu scored and Marjamäki and Kivimäki added to their series tally by assisting. Just before the end of the 2nd period the former Sport man Samuli Kivimäki scored (Kesä, Kantola) to make the score 4-1.
Sport took 3 penalties in the first five minutes of the final period but Ilves couldn’t score on the powerplay, but the fifth goal did come when Toni Rajala (Kantola, Kivimäki) scored with 7 minutes left to give us a 2-0 series lead to take back to Hakametsä.
Toskala saved 23/24. Kai Kantola and Samuli Kivimäki both finished the game 1+2. The next game is in Tampere on Thursday!
Ilves 6-1 Sport
IPA Dominate Sport
For a month now I’ve been dreading this relegation play-off series, I was speaking to a Sport fan I’m friends with on my Twitter account today and he was telling me that he was on his way to Hakametsä with 2000 – 3000 fans, I knew the Red Army were dedicated fans but I found that hard to believe at first, but all credit to them, they really came out in their numbers.
Joonas Rask took a penalty after 3 minutes and the nerves started to feel bad, but then we scored two goals in less than a minute when firstly Teemu Kesä (Rajala, Peltola) and then Masi Marjamäki (Bäckström) made all our nerves go away, the perfect start to such an important game.
At 10:18 Sport player Erik Riska was sent to the penalty box and in just ten seconds of the power play Masi Marjamäki ( Rajala, Rask) scored his second and the game was looking over already! Puurula was replaced by Laitinen in Sports goal straight after. Six minutes later Marjamäki (Peltola, Rask) scored again!! and it was another powerplay goal and we were 4-0 up before the first period was over.
It then got even better Sport took another penalty and yes, that man Masi Marjamäki added to his hat-trick to score his fourth of the night and once again was assisted by Toni Rajala and Niko Peltola. That was how the first period ended and the huge away support were left stunned. The second period didn’t start off as well, Ilves took a series of penalties but we did manage to add a sixth goal through Kai Kantola (Arto Tukio).
Into the third period and we were once again taking lots and lots of penalties, Sport eventually scored 2 minutes before the end of the game as it ended 6-1 and our Ilves continued our excellent winning streak and kept the momentum going, Although we took something like 23 minutes worth of penalties tonight which is as good as playing a period with 4 men on the ice! We must stay out of the box in this series.
Marjamäki, Rajala, Rask and Peltola were absolutely excellent tonight! Also Wiikman did his job very well too, lets keep this going when we travel on Tuesday
THREE MORE WINS
Ilves *5-4 KalPa *JA
Our last SM-Liiga game of the season and it was against the team that finished top of the league and as the team finishing bottom of the league we were expecting a very hard game and that’s just what happened when after 2minutes KalPa score through Riekkinen and that was the only goal of the first period.
It got worse for Ilves when (just like vs TPS) another former player scoring against us when Ryan Glenn scored after 25minutes to make it 0-2. But it was less than 30 seconds until Konsta Mäkinen pulled on back for the home side. At 31:28 Sakari Salminen restored KalPa’s 2 goal lead.
It got really bad and we were 1-4 down when Laurila scored on the powerplay at the start of the 3rd period, that looked like it would be the goal that sealed the victory for the league table toppers. Ilves pulled another goal back when Jesse Niinimäki (sointu) scored 2 minutes after, Henri Tuominen (Välimaa, Pellinen) got us another goal for us and we began to believe that we could still tie the game.
Toskala left the goal and we got the extra attacker on and with just 10 seconds left of the game we once again scored late late on when Jesse Niinimäki (Rask, Sointu) scored his second of the game to send it to over time. It took only 45 seconds before Ville Korhonen (Kivimäki, Bäckström) got the winning goal and gave us 2 points and continued our Amazing run through March to the point where we have finished only 6 points behind HPK, but still 22 points behind 10th placed TPS.
The most important thing right now is that we are scoring a lot of goals and regularly, also our momentum and moral is as high as it’s been all season, I fully expect us to beat Vaasan Sport in the relegation play-offs which start in exactly one week. Congratulations to Sport on a near perfect Mestis play-off campaign and Kiitos Ilves for a wonderful last month of hockey even if our season overall wasn’t a good one, games like the 8-7 season opener vs Tappara and the time when we came back from a big deficit to beat SaiPa in Lapeenranta are two of the main highlights for me.
HPK 3-6 Ilves
Wow! We have played the best hockey of our season ever since we were confirmed to 14th place! Even though this match won’t change anything in the league table it does mean that we are getting good form and great moral just before we play Sport/Jokipojat in the relegation play-off series.
We started the game off great and Konsta Mäkinen (Kantola, Kivimäki) scored at 3:42 of the first period it got even better when 3 and a half minutes later Matias Myttynen (Rask, Peltola) doubled our lead. Juutilainen got a goal back straight after for HPK and I thought of all the other times this season we have thrown away an early lead… but no, Samuli Kivimäki (Kantola, Marjamäki) scored our third goal before 10 minutes had been played of the game!
Our powerplay hasn’t been the best this season but this match was all going our way and Nils Bäckström scored YV2 goal with Marjamäki and Jokipakka assisting, being 4-1 up doesn’t happen often for us, but being 4-1 up away from home in the first period was the best start to the game! HPK did pull another goal back before the end of the 20mins though when Tuulola scored at 17:59.
The second period started worryingly when HPK cut our lead again to 3-4 thanks to Laakkonen. Less than 5 minutes later Ilves scored another powerplay goal and Jyrki Jokipakka (Bäckström, Kivimäki) put us 2 goals ahead again 3-5 and that’s how the second period ended. The final period only had one goal in it and it went to us at 51:16 when Masi Marjamäki fired home our sixth goal with Samuli Kivimäki assisting again along with Teemu Kesä.
Awesome game and well done to Samuli Kivimäki for a 1+3 game and Masi Marjamäki getting back into good form with a 1+2 game.
In other news KalPa clinched the League title today, a nice team with a good bunch of fans, congratulations! and also congratulations to TPS and Lukko who are the final two teams to make the play-offs.
But also a special mention to SaiPa who have played really well this season and are very unlucky to just miss out of the play-offs. As for the mestis final, Sport have a 2-0 series lead over Jokipojat and will almost definitely win the Mestis this season and will face us, but Ilves in our current form scoring a lot of goals should be far too strong for Sport.
Next game is at home vs KalPa and is our last SM-Liiga game of the season, I hope everyone will be there to support the team vs the new league champions.
Ilves *3-2 TPS *JA
Did we just win…. at home?…
Awesome game and just what wee need to keep our moral high before we play Sport/Jokipojat in the play-offs! I predicted a couple of days ago that our ex-player Marko Anttila would open the scoring and he did, 18 seconds after the second period started (plihal assisting).
Matias Myttynen made it 1-1 after 35 minutes and we were playing some good hockey also notably only took 3 penalties in the game which is a huge improvement from what we are used to seeing. Tommi Välimaa and Henri Tuominen created our second goal halfway through the final period, which I thought was going to win us the game, but no, it just wouldn’t be this season without late drama and TPS leveled things up through Mario Scalzo just before the end.
We have been happy in many of our recent games to walk away with a point, be we felt we deserved more from this game and our young team worked hard again to get the winner when Joonas Rask fed Matias Myttynen for his second of the game giving us a win and 2 points with 58 seconds left in overtime.
This game was definatly more important to TPS’s season as they are fighting 4 other teams for a play-off spot, so we did really well to claw 2 points out of this game, it shows we are hungry to succeed and bodes well for the upcoming games we will face vs the winner of the Mestis.
#IlvesMurisee
Ilves 4-5* Jokerit *JA
Another good game in my opinion! and what a goal from Sointu!!
Henri Heino scored after 2 minutes for Jokerit and 40 seconds into the 2nd period hardt doubled Jokerit’s lead. Toni Rajala pulled a goal back before the end of the period with Keränen assisting. In the last period we once again gave up an early goal as Pulkkinen made it 1-3, Sointu scored a great goal on 46 minutes but three minutes later Ben Eaves scored to make it 4-2 for Jokerit.
Teemu Kesä scored with 7 minutes left to give us some hope and we kept up our new tradition of scoring late late goals when Joonas Rask scored with just 12 seconds left on the clock to get us a point which meant that we haven’t been defeated by more than one goal in 4 of our last 5 games, which isn’t bad for a team bottom of the league.
Nordlund scored an YV2 goal which wasn’t a surprise when we were taking so many penalties in JA but a point is nice and we put up a good fight so moral won’t be low, which is important going into the mestis relegation play-off. HPK lost today as well so that is a point closer to them and although we can’t overtake them, we can still make the points gap more respectable.
Jokipojat – Jukurit and Sport – KooKoo will be played today so we may well get a better indication of which team we maybe more likely to face. I’ll keep updated.
Lukko *2-1 Ilves *VL
If we play that well in the Mestis Play-Offs then we shouldn’t fear a thing!
Toskala should get a special mention, 35/36 saves away from home in a game vs a team fighting for the play-offs was impressive. Bomersback scored the opening goal in the second period for Lukko before we equalised in the 42nd minute through Nils Bäckström. This was a game where we needed all 3 points to survive finishing 14th for another week, but we couldn’t get that important second goal, it went through to a shoot-out and we lost when Bertrand got the winning goal for the home team.
So we moved up to 48pts but with 4 games to go we are 13 points behind HPK, so it is a fact that we will be the bottom placed club for the second time in three seasons. Once again I will say this: Let’s take Pelicans as a model for the future, they finished 14th last season, made changes in the summer and came back so strong that they are pushing KalPa for the championship! I see no reason why we can’t emulate their formula or even follow what Ässät did, they were one game away from going to the Mestis in 2009! and then these last two seasons they are a top 6 team. There is no reason that with the right direction we can’t be doing a lot better.
And now to my Mestis Play-Off watch:
Jokipojat 1-2 Jukurit Series: 1-1
Sport 7-2 KooKoo Series: 2-0
Despite Sport finishing below KooKoo in the regular season they Always come through in the Play-offs, they destroyed TuTo 4-0 in their series and are now 2 wins away from the Mestis Final, always a dangerous team. Also Jokipojat have more recent success in the play-offs than Jukurit, even though Jukurit finished the season as the top team I still feel that Jokipojat will win this series and meet Sport in the final.
Ilves will be too strong for any of those teams but hopefully whoever wins the Mestis will become tired and pick up some injuries to make our task even easier, worst case scenario and we go to the Mestis, then we will support even harder in the knowledge that it will not be for long.
In these hard times we should never give up self belief, we are the most successful hockey team in the history of our country and remember this, Form is temporary, Class is forever!
Edit: Mestis Update: Jukurit 1-5 Jokipojat, KooKoo 1-0 Sport JA. so 1-2 and 1-2 in the series
