Karpat Oulu erased their 2-goal aggregate deficit early, and rode a 3-goal, 5-point effort from Julius Junttila to advance to the Champions Hockey League Semi-Finals for the second straight year, and give Espoo the blues.

 Karpat Oulu 5–1 Espoo Blues 

KARPAT WIN ON AGGREGATE 5–3

by Derek O'Brien, with contribution from Miikka Jarvenpaa

OULU – Although they trailed by 2 goals on aggregate heading into the second leg of their Quarter-Final with the Espoo Blues, nobody was foolish enough to count Karpat Oulu out. After overcoming the same deficit in the eighth-finals against Sparta Prague, they did it again on home ice in the quarters, led by a hat-trick from Cramo Top Scorer Julius Junttila to win the game 5–1 and take the series by a total score of 5–3.

In fact, it took them all of 1:19 from the opening face-off to completely erase the deficit. Junttila opened the scoring at the 56-second mark when he took a pass from Arto Laatikainen and beat Karko Kahkonen – who was unbeatable a week ago in Espoo – high to the glove side. Just 23 seconds later it was Janne Haakanpaa, whose long shot through a crowd found the back of the net. The aggregate score was now even, and Karpat looked unstoppable.

“Great start for us, two goals right away. We had chances of making more, but didn’t. In the second we lost our sharpness but luckily didn’t let the Blues to have many chances either,” Karpat coach Lauri Marjamaki said about his team's start.

After that shaky start, Kahkonen was fantastic and didn't allow another goal for over 40 minutes, despite his team getting out-shot 26–6 through two periods. The aggregate score remained tied into the third period, but the deadlock was broken, restored, and broken again in a wild sequence in the 47th and 48th minutes.

With the teams playing 4-on-4 after the Blues Peter Tiivola was called for hooking and Karpat's Mika Niemi for diving at 46:17, three goals were scored in a 1:14 span. First was Junttila scoring his second on nifty deflection of Adam Masuhr's shot after an errant clearing attempt by Kahkonen. Next, Antti Suomeli got the Blues on the board on just their ninth shot on goal of the game from a scramble in front, ending Sami Aittokallio's bid for his 6th CHL shutout. Finally, defenceman Markus Nutivaara put Karpat back on top with a spectacular wrister under the crossbar.

“In my opinion the first period was too easy for Karpat,” said Blues coach Jyrki Aho. “We improved our game in the second. In the third we had our opportunities to advance but we lost the 4-on-4 game 2–1. We need to look into that. We had a chance in the power play in the end, but couldn’t capitalize. Karpat deserved their victory.”

The Blues had chances to tie it back up and had three power plays in the last 10 minutes, including a 5-on-3 advantage for over a minute inside the last three minutes. However, not only did they fail to score, but gave up a shorthanded breakaway to Junttila, who made a fantastic forehand deke for his third goal and fifth point of the game and – more importantly – secure Karpat's spot in the Champions Hockey League Semi-Finals.  

“The guys dealt with the situation well and played a classy game. We stayed true to our system. Junttila’s effort was gritty. It’s great that he rose to the occasion in a game like this,” Marjamaki concluded. Looking ahead to the Semi-Finals and beyond he said, “We are hungry. Last year we got this far and couldn’t advance to Finals. I hope that we can do that this year because this tournament is so important to us.”

About his team's CHL ride, Aho said, “It’s been incredible. It’s been our lifeline all this time. We’ve played the French, Czech and German champs and played in Sweden and came through all those. The interesting thing is that we won a lot games at home but couldn’t win a game away. The system in the CHL makes it so that you can advance without winning all the games.” Congratulations for that. We’ll start focusing on next trials.

GOALS:

• 1st 00:56 - 1:0 (EQ) - Julius Junttila (Arto Laatikainen, Juuso Ikonen)
• 1st 01:19 - 2:0 (EQ) - Jani Hakanpaa (Miro Aaltonen, Julius Junttila)
• 3rd 46:47 - 3:0 (EQ) - Julius Junttila (Adam Masuhr, Ivan Huml)
• 3rd 47:12 - 3:1 (EQ) - Antti Suomela (Jere Seppala, Jari Sailio)
• 3rd 48:01 - 4:1 (EQ) - Markus Nutivaara (Sebastian Aho, Julius Junttila)
• 3rd 58:46 - 5:1 (SH1) - Julius Junttila

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