Naiset - Crackers (5 - 2)

After winning (although not very convincingly) against Top Team the day before, this was going to be a difficult game for us. Crackers had beaten us by one goal in the Suomen Cup first round & we expected the game to be close again.

This was a very fast game with a lot of quick movement from end to end.  Both teams created many scoring opportunities but there were few really good shots on goal early on.  Some sustained pressure from our forwards resulted in our first goal & another goal just before the end of the period gave us a 2-0 lead.

We had spoken before the game about the importance today of playing for all 3 periods. In our game the previous day we had a very poor 2nd period & did not want the same thing to happen today. There were worrying signs early in the 2nd period with some undisciplined tackling in defence giving Crackers a powerplay & then a defensive error that resulted in them equalising the score at 2-2 after just 6 minutes. However, our players did not let this affect them, as it could easily have done and we worked hard to get our game back on track & focussed again on playing our own game.  It took some time (& patience from the coaches!), but eventually this hard work paid off with three goals in just under 2 minutes.

The last period was tight with both teams having opportunities to score, but the score remained as it was at the end of the second period, 5-2.  Again, we came away with the points, but there were certainly some things from this game that we could improve on.

Sarah Mitchell
Päävalmentaja