Peter Abbandonato scored 1:24 into overtime to give Jukurit Mikkeli a 2-1 victory over the Lahti Pelicans and a 4-games-to-1 win in their Liiga playout series. As a result, Jukurit will again play in the top Finnish league next season, while the Pelicans will have to defeat the champion of the second-tier Mestis in a promotion-relegation series to remain.
It’s a mighty fall for the Pelicans, who reached the Liiga finals in both 2023 and 2024, falling to mighty Tappara Tampere in five games each time. This season, however, the team finished 15th out of 16 teams during the regular season and then, after winning the opening game against Jukurit, lost four in a row against a team that only won five regulation-time games all season.
“How is this even possible?” Finnish journalist Ilari Savonen pondered.
Abbandonato’s 6-Point Game Gives Jukurit Lead In Finnish Playout Series
With
just 12 regulation wins in 60 games, Jukurit Mikkeli finished last in
the 16-team Finnish Liiga. The team is now in the midst of a
best-of-seven playout series with the 15th-place Lahti Pelicans, with
the loser facing a relegation series against the winner of the
second-tier Mestis.
The team has never had big stars – it’s currently led offensively by diminutive 38-year-old American Ryan Lasch, who has now played in Europe for over a decade. Other names include Czech goaltender Patrik Bartošák and defenseman Michal Jordán, 19-year-old Minnesota Wild prospect Rasmus Kumplulainen and 18-year-old defenseman Daniel Nieminen – the latter two both played in this year’s World Juniors.
Without a lot of star power, the Pelicans played a solid team game under coach Tommi Niemelä, who left last summer to accept the job behind Ilves Tampere’s bench.
Late in the season, the Pelicans hired former NHL forward Sami Kapanen to take over the coaching reigns but he wasn’t able to avoid the playout series.
“Even though we won the first game, we weren’t mentally present,” Kapanen told MTV Urheilu after the last game on Saturday. “We didn’t play our own game during the first four games. Maybe (Friday) in Mikkeli there were already certain aspects of the execution, but now we’re back to playing our own game.”
Apparently, the travelling Lahti fans in Mikkeli weren’t of the same opinion. Their frustration was mainly aimed at owner Pasi Nurminen – the former NHL goaltender who retired in 2005 at age 30 to take over as owner of his hometown ...
