Kazeka1886

KooKoo leads this series by 3-2 after a tremendous come-from-behind win in game 5 in Tampere, in which both sides looked gassed after a 6-hour quadruple-overtime game the day before, which Tappara edged out. They have shown through 5 games that they are very evenly matched, with only single goal separating them and giving KooKoo that series lead, so this game should be similarly tight. This is the biggest spot the small team from Kouvola has ever been to, having just reached their first final ever and being just one win away from a historic first title. On the other side, Tappara has the most titles in the history of Finnish hockey, and they won 3 of the last 4, showing great resilience as they were 0-2 down in the semifinal series to Ilves and were also 0-2 down in this series before slowly clawing back, so got to expect that experience to play a key role in this game and see Tappara win to force the decisive game 7 back in Tampere.

These two teams battled a quite even series, in which 4 of 5 games stayed below the total. The last 4 games all stayed under after game 1 went over following an empty-netter at the end. Both are exceptional defensively, and Tappara plays more possession-wise when attacking, trying to wear out the defence, while neither is creating many great scoring chances. Both Randelin and Heljanko are excellent goalies and have been at a very high level in this series. Combined with neither team committing many penalties, got to expect another lower-scoring, tense, cagey, gritty type of game that should result in another under.