Karpat captain Lasse Kukkonen and returning junior champion Sebastian Aho spoke about their team's first-leg victory over Lukko Rauma in the CHL Semi-Finals. Veteran D-man Kukkonen provided the offensive spark to get the comeback started. 

by Derek O'Brien and Timo Simila

RAUMA – Lasse Kukkonen is Karpat Oulu's captain, and always takes care of the defensive side of the ice before thinking offence. That's why the Finnish media, who are well familiar with the 34-year-old defenceman, were anxious to get his reaction to what was probably the most memorable play of Karpat's 3–2 win over Lukko Rauma in the first leg of the Champions Hockey League Semi-Final. With his team down two goals early but on the power play, Kukkonen carried the puck into the Lukko zone and unleashed a bomb of a slap shot that beat goaltender Ryan Zapolski high to the stick side. 

“Well yeah, sometimes it’s worth taking the shot even though there’s just a slim chance.” He shrugged, “Sometimes it pays off, like this time.”

But Kukkonen was more interested in speaking about the rest of the game and giving praise to his teammates.

“Right until the first Lukko goal we played solid hockey. It was a close game until the end and the one-goal advantage wasn’t earned easy tonight.” He added that “Samppa (Karpat goalie Sami Aittokallio) made some great saves tonight in net and kept us in the game on his behalf.”

It was not an easy victory, but a big one to get on the road to open the home-and-away series. Karpat know they now have the Final within their sights, but it won't be easy even back home.

“These are tough games and being in the final four means a lot to me and the whole team. Personally I like playing CHL games.” When asked about a potential opponent in the Final, he responded, “It’s not worth speculating right now. We need to get Lukko off our backs first, then we’ll see. We just have to keep putting the puck into the net as always and the rest is up to others.”

Back to routine for World Junior Champs

Sebastian Aho has been one of Karpat's offensive leaders all season, but was held without any points in this game. The 19-year-old winger, though, is just coming off the high of winning the World Junior Championship on home ice in Helsinki and, along with fellow national junior teammates Jesse Puljujarvi and Antti Kalapudas, is just getting back into the routine of playing for his club team.

“For me the best way to get back to the normal routine is to have some on-ice drills and of course playing games. Winning tonight was great and through these games the adjustment to the normal routine gets easier and easier.” 

About the game, Aho said, “We were patient as planned. We had a good defensive game but Lukko got a two-goal lead in the first period but we fought our way to tie and to a one-goal victory.”

Coach Lauri Marjamaki was mostly pleased with his team's performance, but like his captain Kukkonen, knows that this thing is far from over. 

“We are happy with tonight’s victory but we have to step up the pace for next week. This was an entertaining hockey game between two good teams that became more and more interesting as the clock went down.”