Tappara Tampere advance to the CHL Final for the second season in a row
A high-pace game packed full of action saw Swiss side EV Zug do their absolute best to secure their place in the Champions Hockey League Final but ultimately Tappara Tampere's consistent performances, solid goaltending and patience across the two legs proved superior, as the Finns move on to the Final for a second season in a row.
A slow start to the game from home team Zug saw Tappara pick up some decent chances in the opening ten minutes, but the Swiss were just getting into operating temperature as a bevy of opportunities would come their way in the following few minutes.
Their attacking prowess, sparked by a roughing call for Veli-Matti Savinainen at 12:23, would see Zug test Christian Heljanko in net and ultimately give them their one-goal lead when Reto Suri picked up a stray puck in front of Heljanko and fired it in.
They kept the pressure up for the remainder of the first period, but to no avail.
The same could be said for the second which saw an even hungrier team return to the ice, but despite their best efforts for almost 15 minutes of the second period, Tappara's Niko Ojamäki found the perfect lane to pass to Patrik Virta who had no trouble firing the puck past Leonardo Genoni in net at 35:18.
Despite the goal gifting the Finns back their two-goal aggregate score margin, it was Zug again who would go on the attack, racking up an astonishing 32 shots on goal by the time the second buzzer sounded.
The very start of the third period saw Zug pick up where they left off when Jan Kovář placed a perfect pass to Fabrice Herzog who tipped the puck between Heljanko's blockers and into the net to reduce the aggregate score back to within a single goal.
The Swiss, riding high on positive energy, kept the chances coming forcing Heljanko to make a few big saves in the following minutes.
Both sides exchanged blows for the next ten or so minutes, before a cross-checking call for Tappara's Petteri Puhakka gave Zug a late powerplay opportunity and a chance to level the series.
A second penalty for Tappara even gave the Swiss a brief period of 5-on-3 play but they still couldn't score.
As Puhakka returned with his penalty time up, Genoni sprinted for the bench to make way for the extra skater, but the youngster was able to intercept a puck and headed for the net to drive home the equaliser that returned Tappara's two-goal lead in the series.
With nothing to lose, Genoni stayed on the bench leaving the net unmanned which gave Tappara's Jori Lehterä all the space he needed to score the final goal of the night to finalise the score at 3-2 and 5-2 on aggregate.
Tappara will now face Swedish side Luleå Hockey in the one-game CHL Final on 18 February 2023.