“Now you can already say that when the series is over”, explains the Tappara attacker Walter Merelä about the respondent’s familiarity with goalkeepers.
After that, Merelä tells how in Tappara, in the semi-finals of the ice hockey league against HIFK, it was made clear that the opponent’s goal was played by a small Roope Taponen. In the team from Tampere, it was known that the top-fit goalkeeper would be happy to come outside his goal area to cover situations.
That’s what Tappara wanted to attack.
“It was known that you had to be on the edge of the goalkeeper’s area with a mask on, so that he couldn’t get in. That makes it difficult. We tried to emphasize that a lot,” says Merelä.
The series between HIFK and Tappara ended last Tuesday with the victory of the people from Tampere. After that, Merelä and Tappara took a break for a few days before returning to training on Thursday.
Sea was effective in the semi-final series. Five goals were scored, four of them with superior power.
Merelä plays in Tappara’s number one advantage, which is an absolute prerequisite if Kirvesrintas plans to topple this spring. Central striker in Tappara’s first line-up Jori Lehterä running the game and Brother Matti Savinainen brings his top-level expertise to the mask man’s duties in front of the goal. On top of that, there are three players who play with the right hand down: the Olympic champions Niko Ojamäki and Valtteri Kemiläinen and Merelä.
“I have to be able to win loose pucks and play versatile. Offer places to serve so that I can play the puck. Then, of course, there will be chances in front of the goal. It is good for me and Savinainen to operate.”
Merelä says that the thinking model is mostly based on scoring goals. You don’t go to the field to run the game and hold the puck, but to finish the shot. An attack attempt is made when there is space. Being prepared to get a place keeps the players constantly awake.
The amount of personal skill and finishing ability in the five is wild. In addition to that, the five know each other constantly better.
“We trained right away in the first week of August with that superiority. A lot of things have been reviewed and videos have been watched. You don’t have to think too hard. Knows what to do. Each player is able to do what the game asks with his personal skill. If what is planned is not open, we can change the plan by reading others.”
Waltteri Merelä scored a 3–0 goal for Tappara in a match against Kalpa on January 31
The sea the total balance in the playoffs before the finals is six hits. The aforementioned operation in front of the goal can also be seen in several playoff goals. Merelä is sharp in reacting to loose pucks. The hits haven’t been created by patricline-like cannonading from the arc of the b-point.
In his childhood, Mereläkkin shot the puck at home from the launch pad into the goal. The conditions were “on top of the last”. The secret of painting has still been found elsewhere..
“I don’t feel that my shot is terribly special,” says Merelä.
It’s all about probabilities and game numbers. 25-year-old Merelä says that he focused above all on how goals are scored during the years he played in adult leagues. He says that he thinks about what to shoot better than in his youth.
Merelä says that a good shot is not even enough to score a goal. One of the key realizations has been in goal shooting. The goals coming from the goal kick are the result of studying and tuning the physical readiness to the level required by the adult leagues.
“Perhaps I haven’t always been able to win pucks in it. The packs were much stronger in the League than in the juniors and played better there. I’ve learned to react and read where the pucks are going.”
Own team’s goalkeeper coach Aki Näykki and the goalkeepers of the own team are excellent aids in weaving plots. Merelä says that Näyk will help with statistics on how the opponent’s goalkeeper has been able to score goals in the past.
“In practice, we go through a lot with the goalkeepers about where to shoot from a certain position, so that it would be the most difficult for the goalkeepers. You can learn a lot from small things,” says Merelä.
Sea could have fought for the top spots in the regular season scoring market, but a wrist injury forced him to miss almost a third of the regular season.
Merelä was with the Lions in the Karelian tournament in Turku. In the Czech match, the opponent’s skate cut the winger’s wrist open during a fall.
Even though the situation was dramatic, after dressing the wound, Merelä was able to take a shower on her own, for example, before taking an ambulance to the hospital, where her hand was quickly operated on. The next morning he got home already.
He says that there was not too much panic at birth. When the fingers worked, it was known that the worst nerve damage had been avoided.
Now five months have passed since the situation. The overriding feeling is relief that the hand is back. Forced rest from games meant a long training period, which Merelä estimates has provided snacks for the spring season.
After the situation, Merelä adopted wrist guards that protect against cuts. He says he got used to the shelter in a week.
“I say to the parents of sleds that they should be put into use. You never know for sure what will happen. My incision was one and a half millimeters from the nerve. If you had hit it, you never would have known how the hand would recover. Serious and pointless things, when a small wrist guard prevents them,” says Merelä.
Read more: HIFK’s wild end wasn’t enough – Tappara went to the finals, Melart commented strictly on the bronze medal game
Read more: Lasting success offered HIFK a lesson on what it takes to be successful in the league
Read more: Jussi Tapola, who piloted Tappara to the final, praised HIFK and criticized Pelicans and Ilves
Read more: The spring puck sensation Pelicans advanced to the finals
Read more: Ilves’ loss was a setback for the rest of the League as well
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