Liiga Finals: Tappara are Finnish champions again after game seven win over KooKoo

[p]On their previous visit to Nokia Arena on 9th May, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/kookoo/ljjApDE3/"]KooKoo[/a] secured a 1-2 victory that put themselves one win away from a maiden Liiga title, but a [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/tappara/llrWVOwG/"]Tappara[/a] win by the same scoreline two days later in Kouvola set up a game seven decider with home advantage for the Tampere side.[/p][p]Not that home advantage had made much of a difference in the series so far - four of the six previous matches were away wins, and KooKoo would have had no reason to doubt they could cause another.[/p][p]But those doubts would have started to grow just four minutes in, when Tappara took the lead. [b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/pavel-ondrej/xv8ZkadB/"]Ondrej Pavel[/a] picked up the puck on his own blue line before skating away past the KooKoo defenders before applying the finish.[/b][/p][embed guid="0646c33d-967d-4fb7-9856-0fa70a7a9ca7" url="https://x.com/smliiga/status/2054589248955683229" social-type="twitter" /][p]A hooking call against [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/davidsson-marcus/AJtjdlPL/"]Marcus Davidsson[/a] within seconds of the restart didn't help the visitors' hopes of a quick response, and though they survived the powerplay, in truth they were second best in the first 20 minutes, as Tappara allowed just one shot on goal and took 14 of their own.[/p][p]And that domination was rewarded with a second goal with 90 seconds of the opening period to play - [b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/rautiainen-benjamin/KUr19Dum/"]Benjamin Rautiainen[/a] held the puck up behind the KooKoo goal before laying it back for [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/blichfeld-joachim/zD6cncwU/"]Joachim Blichfeld[/a] right in front, and the Dane had time to pick his spot and place his fourth goal in as many games past [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/randelin-eetu/INE1Fm4j/"]Eetu Randelin[/a][/b], giving [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mattila-jesper/0U8LTxPa/"]Jesper Mattila[/a] his second assist of the evening.[/p][embed guid="a7679e9d-ebf9-42c6-9b08-b175deac675c" url="https://x.com/smliiga/status/2054595485839544348" social-type="twitter" /][p]The Kouvola side were guilty of too many men on the ice midway through the match but again held out in the powerplay, before Tappara were briefly down to three skaters after [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/addamo-justin/McdgnKKB/"]Justin Addamo[/a] was called for tripping and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/jokipakka-jyrki/vi6SmFM5/"]Jyrki Jokkipakka[/a] for delay of game.[/p][p]The Battle Axe managed to get one man back, but the prolonged period of being a player down took its toll in the final two minutes of the second, [b]though KooKoo still needed a fortunate deflection on [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/davidsson-marcus/AJtjdlPL/"]Marcus Davidsson[/a]'s pass to divert the puck straight to [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/siikonen-miska/Ue7NilOn/"]Miska Siikonen[/a], who took the chance and beat [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/heljanko-christian/46cyipOI/"]Christian Heljanko[/a] from close range.[/b][/p][p]KooKoo edged the shot count in the final period, as they had done in the second, but penalties conceded in the final 10 minutes damaged their comeback potential. [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/puhakka-ville/pYSO81xd/"]Ville Puhakka[/a] was sent to the box for roughing, then another too many men incident ensured they finished the match a player down.[/p][embed guid="5e159ce8-6cd3-4462-a89e-87e2572ade60" url="https://x.com/smliiga/status/2054621012671549854" social-type="twitter" /][p][b]That allowed Tappara to hold on for a [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/hockey/kookoo-ljjApDE3/tappara-llrWVOwG/?mid=jNJPE0yJ"]2-1 victory, winning an epic series 4-3[/a] and become champions of Finland for the 14th time.[/b] Appearing in the finals for the first time, KooKoo's wait to lift the Kanada-malja goes on.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/hockey/finland/liiga-2025-2026/"]Review the 2025/26 Liiga season on Flashscore.[/a][/b][/p]