On Thursday night in Pilsen, reigning Finnish Liiga champions HPK Hämeenlinna played their first-ever game in the Champions Hockey League. After a poor first period, in which they were outshot 13-0 but stayed even thanks to the goaltending of Antti Karjalainen, they had leads of 2-0, 3-1 and 4-2 and seemed destined to win their first game. Alas, HC Pilsen came back with two late goals in the third period and another in overtime to spoil the party.
The players and the coach had both positives and negatives to take from the game.
“We are so proud to be part of the CHL,” said head coach Antti Penanen. “It’s a big thing for us, for the club, many of our fans and these are very demanding games. We didn’t understand that at the start of the game and after that, we understood and we played better in the second period.”
“We didn’t win but still, it was a good experience for us because now we understand what kind of games these are.”Antti Penanen (head coach, HPK Hämeenlinna)
“We took too many penalties and gave them too many easy goals,” said defenceman Petteri Nikkilä. “We didn’t play our best but we should have won that game. We had a good second period but they played pretty well today. This was a good experience. Good fans, good atmosphere and it was fun to play.”
HPK is a young team and its biggest rising star is hometown boy Jere Innala, 21, who had a breakthrough season last year in the Liiga with 56 points in 78 regular-season and playoff games. This was a new experience for him as well.
“It was a tough game,” Innala began. “The first period we didn't play very good. The second period was better and the third period was so-so.”
He showed his goal-scoring ability on the game’s opening goal, which look like a beautiful fake pass and a shot to the top corner. However, in actuality, he expained: “I was trying to pass to (Markus) Nenonen but the puck was bouncing and it went into the goal. Not what I was trying to do but okay, I’ll take it.”
Nenonen, the overtime hero in game seven of last year’s Liiga finals, scored early in the third period to give HPK a 4-2 lead.
“We were in a good situation but we made some mistakes,” Nenonen said about the lead getting away. “We had it in our hands but we lost it and that’s not good.”
Nenonen played in the CHL for JYP Jyväskylä in 2014/15 and 2015/16 and said: “I like this tournament. It’s fun. You can travel, see new teams and play different styles of games. I like that.”
Another player with CHL experience is captain Niklas Friman, who played for both TPS Turku and JYP.
“The style these Central European teams play is a little different than what we’re used to in our own league,” said Friman. “This is a good experience and we’re proud to be here because we had to earn our place.”
Things don’t get much easier for HPK, as waiting for them on Saturday in Switzerland are EV Zug.
“We have a big challenge ahead of us in Zug,” said the captain. “For most of the game, the Czech team was a little better than us so we have to improve our game but I’m very sure we can do that.”