Swedish side Luleå Hockey came so close to winning the Champions Hockey League on Saturday evening, but Tappara Tampere's controlled and focused defending, with goaltender Christian Heljanko in large part to thank, was the decider as the Finns lifted the European Trophy high into the air while Luleå looked on disappointedly.
That was a hard pill to swallow for the hosts of the CHL Final, since they were only minutes, seconds even, away from tying the game and taking it to OT following two third-period goals that got them back into the race for the title of CHL Champions.
"I have to give them credit - they played really good"Thomas Berglund, Luleå Hockey Head Coach
"They came out much better than us and they caught us on the back foot, "thought Luleå Head Coach Thomas Berglund, "it was a tight game and we didn’t manage it well enough."
The Finns came out all guns blazing, scoring their first goal already two minutes into the game on the powerplay. They added goal #2 at 7:06, quickly turning the way Luleå needed to approach this game around completely.
Erik Gustafsson, Luleå's captain, also chimed in with his thoughts on the first period - "We just weren't ready and let the game slip away with the two goals."
Two goals down, the Swedish team looked shattered, but despite the odds against them, they miraculously picked themselves up and wasted no time in trying to change the outcome of the game. Shot after shot, turnover after turnover, putting in the work in every shift - they tried everything and really pushed Tappara to the limit, but there was one main problem - a spectacular Christian Heljanko in net just wasn't letting anything in.
The captain would go on to score at 52:04, before Juhani Tyrväinen scored Luleå's second on the night with just over two minutes of game time left. But despite the Swedish team's best efforts, the goals came too late.
"You can't give a team like Tappara space"Erik Gustafsson, Luleå Hockey
"The last two periods were pretty good, especially the third," thought Gustafsson, with Head Coach Berglund adding: "I think we played really good in the last 10 minutes, but we just weren’t good enough from the beginning.“
"Overall, it was a tight game but we just didn’t manage it well enough," ended Berglund.