Happee defeats Vitkovice after tough fight — 02.10.2014

Happee Jyväskylä needed to win their second game of the tournament against Czech champions Vitkovice to keep the chance for the semifinals. It was a hard and intense fight between the two opponents, but the Finnish Champion managed to take a 7:5 win.

After the defeat against GC Zurich in their first game, Happee was under big pressure against the Czech champions 1. SC Vitkovice. They needed a win to have a chance to advance to the semifinals. The game started at a hectic pace as both teams tried to put pressure on their opponents, with Vitkovice even playing a man-on-man defence over the entire field. For the first ten minutes both teams showed a lack of control but nevertheless the game was fast with a high intensity. As the time passed Happee gained more and more control over the game but the Czech champions still played a very compact defense and didn´t allow many shots on their goal. This being said, it was no surprise that it took more then 17 minutes until the first team scored. It was Happee´s Jami Manninen who succeeded with a wristshot. But after the goal the Finnish team lost the concentration a little and got punished for that right away with the equalizer from Lukas Hajek. The first period ended with this 1:1 draw.

Happee took over control of the game

In the second period both teams took some speed out of their game. This led to more control and also to more goals. Twice the Finnish champions got the lead only to have Vitkovice answer straight back to equalise. After the third lead of Happee within ten minutes the Czech team had no more answers. When they offered the Finnish team a powerplay opportunity. Petri Kauko and Peter Kotilainen said “Thank you” and scored a beautiful goal to the first two-goal-lead of the game. Only two minutes later Jonne Junkkarinen shook his opponent off and benefited from his freedom with a precise shot to the 6:3 lead after the second period.

Tough fight until the last second

The last period started quite similar to the first: more speed and intensity especially from the Czech players. But when the Finnish champions added another goal to the score, the game seemed to be decided. However, the Czech team thought differently, and when captain Pavel Brus profited from a powerplay during 49^thminute and five minutes later Marek Matejcik scored the fifth goal for Vitkovice the final stage of the game was launched. The Czech champions played with a sixth player instead of a goalkeeper and had some very good scoring opportunities, however they didn´t add up to the scoreboard and lost their first game of the Champions Cup with 5:7 against Happee.

Bestplayers:
Happee: Nr. 21 Juuso Heikkinen
Vitkovice: Nr. 44 Lukas Hajek

(Photos: Michael Peter/André Burri)
More photos from the match by Michael Peter and André Burri can be found on IFF Flickr.