Two goals in the third period from Tommi Huhtala gave Jokerit a vital victory as the Western Conference semi-final moved to Helsinki.
CSKA marched to the Baltic with a 2-0 series lead and a 100% post-season record but faced a Finnish team roared on by a passionate crowd and determined to play its way back into contention. That set the stage for a contest that was full of thrust and parry on offense for much of the first two sessions, but which finally turned anticipation into excitement in the 35th minute.
The drama started with a penalty against CSKA for having too many men on the ice. The visitor was unruffled, breaking out on the PK for Jan Mursak to feed Simon Hjalmarrson to open the scoring with a short-ended effort. However it took just 30 seconds for Jokerit to tie it up thanks to Ville Lajunen.
That paved the way for Huhtala’s decisive contribution. In the 46th minute he made it 2-1, wrapping up a lightning break to turn in Eetu Poysti’s pass at the far post. Two minutes later he was on the mark again, scoring off the rebound from a Topi Jaakola shot from the point.
CSKA gambled early, withdrawing goalie Kevin Lalande with more than three minutes to play, and got a partial reward thanks to yet another goal from Igor Grigorenko. He scored twice to inspire CSKA’s comeback win in Game 1 of the series, but his hopes of a repeat here were scuppered moments later when Bogdan Kiselevich took a penalty for CSKA, easing Jokerit’s efforts to run down the clock.
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КХЛ 2008—2021
KHL 2008—2021
All rights to materials posted on the website www.khl.ru (hereinafter referred to as the Website) and which are the objects of exclusive rights, including the registered trademarks and symbolics of the “КХЛ”/“KHL”, “МХЛ” / “JHL”, “ЖХЛ” / “WHL” (hereinafter referred to as the Trademarks), as well as on photo and video images, articles, etc., which are owned by CHL LLC, are protected in compliance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. The placement and / or use of Trademarks and other intellectual property of CHL LLC without the direct consent of CHL LLC are considered and prosecuted as intellectual property rights violations of CHL LLC in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation. It is forbidden to automatically extract information from the Website by any services without the official permission of CHL LLC. Quoting from the Website and satellite projects of the official messages of the Kontinental Hockey League is allowed only with a direct link to the site www.khl.ru.