Waltteri Merelä and Santtu Kinnunen “saw” in Turku.
NHL club Playing in the Tampa Bay Lightning organization Walter Merelä and representing the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL league Santtu Kinnunen were haunted on Saturday in Finland.
Both Merelä and Kinnunen were “seen” in the ice hockey SM league match between TPS and Tappara. The two made it to both the post-goal announcements and the video board.
Merelä was announced as Tappara's scorer even twice.
How did Merelä, who plays in North America, end up as the scorer in a league match?
“I do know that Merelä is in North America, and we already knew about it anyway, but there was a technical error in the databases,” TPS event manager Veera Torikka answers.
“According to the old list, Merelä had gone there for some reason.”
Merelä represented Tappara last season. Kinnunen was last seen in the 2021-2022 season, so at least some of the lineups were at least two seasons old.
Turkuhalli's video board said on Saturday that Waltteri Merelä completed Tappara's third goal from a pass by Heikki Liedes and Valtteri Kemiläinen. Taylor Matson actually scored the goal.
The match Narrated by MTV Katsomo Toni Saukkola was surprised by Tappara's list of names, which deviated from reality, as soon as the names of Kinnusen and Merelä appeared.
“At the moment, it says on the light board that the number one pitcher was Santtu Kinnunen. However, Kinnunen no longer plays in Tappara, with number 72”, Saukkola said after the opening goal.
In reality, the assist went instead to Kinnusen Petri Kontiolawho plays this season in Tappara with number 72.
Kirvesrinto's second and third goals, on the other hand, were real by Taylor Matson from the stage. He plays with number 9, which was Merelä's number until last season.
“Again, Turkuhalli's light board has little to do with data. Waltteri Merelä is announced as the scorer. It seems to be, or is, old information”, observed Saukkola after the 0-2 hit.
Waltteri Merelä scored two goals in the TPS–Tappara match. The second hit for Kirvesrinto was actually scored by Taylor Matson.
Torikka indicates that the system was rebooted after the error was detected.
“For some unknown technical reason, this happened. It's a shame, of course, that you hit such a big game, but sometimes these things happen,” he says.
According to Torika, the TPS camp has not received “any other” feedback about wrong names.
“Of course, our AV team, which is doing the event, was immediately notified that this happened. We noticed it before the Tappara fans did,” says Torikka.
More than 10,000 spectators watched Saturday's family game in Turku, of which more than 2,000 were from Tampere.
“Of course they reacted to it, but the matter was noticed and dealt with immediately. There's nothing more to it than that,” says Torikka.
Santtu Kinnunen last played in Tappara in the 2021–2022 season. His name was still on display on Saturday in Turku as the passer of Tappara's opening goal.
Feedback According to the event manager, the kirvesrinto supporter's stand was loud.
“I didn't hear what they were shouting, but they shouted something to it. We did hear that some reaction had been caused.”
Tappara was a rude guest in Turku on Saturday, as it defeated its host cleanly 4–0 and returned to Tampere with a full point pot.
Waltteri Merelä, who made his NHL debut this season, played on Saturday in the jersey of Lightning's farm club Syracuse Crunch.
Merelä had two hits against the Toronto Marlies and was chosen as the second star of the match that ended in a 4–2 victory for the Crunch.
Santtu Kinnunen, on the other hand, was wearing a Checkers shirt on Saturday, defeating the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 4–2.
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