The Oilers from Espoo sent the Classic, which won the previous six championships, to the summer vacation in a dramatic way.
In floorball we will see a new men’s Finnish champion for the first time in seven years.
Tampere Classic’s dynasty that lasted for years came to an end when Esport Oilers won the fourth and decisive match of the quarter-final series in Tapiola in overtime with a score of 8–7.
The resolution of a very flat thriller was dramatic. Classic still led three minutes before the decision, but Justus Kainulainen forced the game to overtime with less than three minutes left in the game.
A bit later Antti Suomela sivalsi the people of Tampere for the summer vacation in the 65th minute of the match.
“A good blanket, from [Matias] Veikkola picked up the ball and had the nerve to turn it over to me. There was quite a lot of space, and I went to deliver. A rather lucky bounce into the bottom corner, and the hall exploded,” said Suomela, who sank from Tampere.
“We defended with a really good attitude. The guy had trouble getting to those really good goal spots. Then we turned around and solved them ourselves.”
Series of matches was strict despite the result. Each win was fought until the end, and two of the games went to overtime. Still, everyone eventually turned to the Oilers.
The head coach Aleksi Lammin according to the team’s growth, the keys to Espoo’s victory were on the mental side.
“The opponent in question has been with us for quite a few years. This shows our mental strength”, Lammi praised his team.
Classic is a six-time reigning Finnish champion. This year, a new team will win the F-League for the first time since 2015.
Oilers’ number one player, 7+7 in the first three games Aaro Astala was sidelined for the match, but that didn’t hinder the Oilers’ hot first team. Justus Kainulainen scored a hat trick even without his pair of radars.
Astala’s absence forced the Oilers to produce power from the lower chains as well. As usual, Kainulainen was always dangerous, but the Oilers scored goals from a wider front compared to previous matches.
According to Lammi, Astala will “easily” return to the semi-finals.
“Just a little sick,” Lammi commented.
Astala or not, the No. 1 chain was the single biggest factor in the Oilers winning the series. It flowed completely freely at the end of the Classic, and the people from Tampere had no answer.
“I feel that the five are more than the sum of their individuals. So far, we’ve pretty much relied on our top five, but today we got more solvers,” Lammi said.
The Oilers’ semifinal opponent is not yet known.
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