Even a one-goal loss would have been good enough to put Karpat Oulu in the semi-finals, but they beat SaiPa Lappeenranta to secure the CHL's first semi-final berth. 

Karpat Oulu 3–2 SaiPa Lappeenranta

Karpat win 5–2 on aggregate | WATCH highlights here

by Luke Fisher, quotes from Pekka Mankila

KARPAT – Karpat Oulu secured their place in the semi-finals of the Champions Hockey League with a 5–2 aggregate win over Liiga rivals SaiPa Lappeenranta. Joonas Kemppainen led the offence in game two with a goal and an assist, while Iiro Tarkki stopped 21 of 23 shots. 

"It was hard to come to this game," said SaiPa coach Pekka Tirkkonen, expressing the predicament his team faced after getting shut out in their home half of this series. "We sure could had used a goal on home ice. We prepared ourselves well and the team still believed that we could turn this thing around. But we couldn't match up with a better team. The better team won this series, no doubt about it."

The visitors from Lappeenranta arrived in Oulu two goals down from the first leg, knowing that early goals would be crucial for them to overturn the deficit. However, a series of penalty troubles in the opening period saw SaiPa on the back foot for most of the opening 20 minutes – though they survived without conceding thanks to a solid effort from dependable netminder Jussi Markkanen. Finally it was SaiPa who took a surprise early lead, as Matti Jarvinen struck home with 15:30 played in the first.

The middle period started with SaiPa leading 1–0, but needing another goal to tie the match-up on aggregate. However the tie turned back in the Karpat's favour in a four minute spell thanks to two Joonases. First up was Kemppainen, who tied the game with just one second remaining in the second period, and then at 43:19 Joonas Donskoi struck on a set-up from Kemppainen to put Karpat in the lead.

Sam Lofquist would level the game just over five minutes later, but SaiPa still needed to find two goals to take the series to overtime. As they pushed forward to try and level the match-up, Juho Keranen struck for Oulu with 4:30 remaining to confirm his team's place in the semi-finals with a 3–2 win on the night, 5–2 overall.

"After SaiPa's first goal, we played at some moments clearly our best hockey so far this season," Karpat coach Laur Marjamaki said of his team's play over the last two periods. "We worked hard and created 15 good scoring chances. Markkanen was amazing and we hit posts. We stayed patient and Kemppainen scored a very important goal for us. The team showed some character. This knows good things for us in the future."