It’ll be a Nordic affair in the Grand Final of the Champions Hockey League, as Tappara Tampere took a 3-0 victory over Red Bull Munich in a one-game semi-final, setting up a meeting with Swedish side Rögle Ängelholm.

Coming into the game, Tappara had scored a total of 14 goals on the powerplay, and as Munich took a high-sticking penalty in the early moments of the contest, it gave the hosts the opportunity they needed. It was the playmaker finally getting his first goal of the season, Kristian Kuusela was open on the left and his one-time effort opened the scoring less than five minutes in.

Munich looked to try and stop the fast-paced game of Tappara, but couldn’t get much offence going of their own, and as Munich’s late powerplay was cancelled out by a penalty of their own, the score remained at one to nothing at the end of 20 minutes, with Tappara outshooting Munich by 14-3.

Munich had to kill a penalty left over from the first to start the second period, and once they returned to full strength, they managed to find a bit more of an offensive rhythm. A powerplay saw a lot of zone time, but not the right execution on their shots, but they grew in confidence as they began to find more ways of putting pucks on Christian Heljanko, but it still wouldn’t be enough for them to get one on the board.

Tappara had a great chance to net their second midway through, a great move towards net saw Tyler Morley cut through on a breakaway, but it was read brilliantly by Henrik Haukeland who denied the Canadian forward.

With a place in the Final up for grabs, the physicality rose with neither side wanting to lose, but neither side could find a decisive second period goal, setting up a grandstand finish as Tappara held their one-goal advantage into the third period of play.

Both sides looked to play strong in their own end, with both teams not really looking to take too many risks, but as time started winding down, someone needed to take hold of the game.

Joona Luoto picked up the puck at the blueline after a long stretch pass by Otso Rantakari, and Luoto faked out Haukeland to bury the second of the night for Tappara, giving them a 2-0 lead with less than 10 minutes remaining. 

Shortly after doubling their lead, Tappara were back on the powerplay and in a very similar vein, Kristian Kuusela punished Munich. As Tappara moved the puck well, Kuusela was open in the left circle and fired a one-timer into the back of the net for his second of the night, and second of the tournament to add to his 11 assists coming into the Semi-Finals.

Tappara survived a late powerplay scare, and as time ticked away, Tappara were the ones celebrating a shutout win to move on to the Grand Final.