Ice hockey | Joker’s Erkka Seppälä hit out at last season’s teammates: “Maybe I fanned a little too much”

Jokers won against Kiekko-Vantaa in front of Mesti’s record crowd on Friday. The local struggle of the capital region at the Helsinki Ice Hall ended with the numbers 3–2.

The match got off to a fast start, and emotions were running high in the middle of the first round. Responsible for the winning goal Erkka Seppälä says that the record audience, which was already known in advance, brought energy to the home team.

“The atmosphere was amazing. You don’t realize it until you go on the ice. You have to be grateful to the fans”, Seppälä cheers on the home crowd.

Seppälä, who has played more than a hundred matches in Mesti, cannot remember a similar atmosphere from his own matches.

“I can’t think of a match where there was such a mecca in the hall.”

For Seppälä the match was special, because he played in Kiekko-Vantaa last season.

“There were a lot of friends and familiar coaching. It’s always a little different then, but games are always games, nothing more than that,” Seppälä acknowledges.

Meeting the old team is special, but friendships were forgotten on the rink – perhaps a little too much, because Seppälä was afraid after the match that he had fanned the goal in front of his former teammates too jubilantly.

“The feeling took me a bit, and I fanned the goal a little too much,” the attacker grins.

There was a long queue at the doors of the Helsinki ice rink before the match. Picture: Jussi Nukari / Magazine photo

In the final we saw a strange situation when the judges checked Kiekko-Vantaa’s second goal for an exceptionally long time on video. The players were already skating around the court to warm up as the break got longer and longer.

“Such a situation doesn’t terribly affect your own game. It’s just a matter of keeping the heat on, and then it’s ready again when the game continues,” says Seppälä.

According to Seppälä, “there was talk” that in the situation it was checked whether the goal had been scored by hand. The situation was not shown on the video board at all, and therefore neither Seppälä nor the viewers saw a specific reason for rewinding the video tapes.

After the final buzzer, Jokerit went to thank the supporters on the ice. After the match, Seppälä planned to go to the night club through eating, because on Saturday there is a bus trip to Turku as a guest of TuTo.

Even though the matches are played on consecutive days, Seppälä believes that the legs will still be clean even in the latter match.

“Tomorrow is also a great match in Turku, Kupitta is sold out there. Let’s go enjoy and seek profit”, Seppälä predicts.