Liiga Playoffs: Ilves hold off late Tappara rally to win semi-final derby opener

[p]With the whole of the best-of-seven series for a spot in the finals taking place at the Nokia Arena, neither side is likely to benefit from home advantage, as was proven this evening, though [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/ilves-tampere/Oh5uGzDT/"]Ilves[/a] still had to deal with a hostile atmosphere from the blue-and-orange clad fans.[/p][p]The tone was set in the first minute, even though [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/kos-ondrej/n9nWNuT9/"]Ondrej Kos[/a]' goal was disallowed following a video review. Ilves then scored one that counted less than two minutes later, when[b] a scrap for the puck deep in [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/tappara/llrWVOwG/"]Tappara[/a] territory resulted in [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/klingberg-carl/tKbCh7qO/"]Carl Klingberg[/a] finding [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/quenneville-peter/QF0DaJci/"]Peter Quenneville[/a], who finished from close range.[/b][/p][p]Just 14 seconds of play later, it was 2-0, as [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/borg-erik/Odajpn3B/"]Erik Borg[/a] forced Tappara to lose possession at centre ice, [b]before [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/ratinen-samuli/IPXDuzXP/"]Samuli Ratinen[/a] took control, raced into the attacking zone and fired in his first goal of the postseason.[/b][/p][p]That's how things stayed until the second period, in which Ratinen and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/parikka-jarkko/O8XjRhWp/"]Jarkko Parikka[/a] both conceded penalties, but the regular season champions failed to take advantage on powerplays on both occasions.[/p][embed guid="30375f87-148d-4441-a7f9-71ca6805f66d" url="https://x.com/smliiga/status/2044805086589727110" social-type="twitter" /][p]Early in the third period, the Lynx were at it again, [b]extending their lead when [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/looke-jens/vPV6ILAs/"]Jens Looks[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/jasek-lukas/0OkXrem5/"]Lukas Jasek[/a] played a nice one-two to bypass an exposed Tappara defence, before Looke finished the move in style.[/b][/p][p]The Battle Axe then turned to [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/rauhala-otto/IZtRlFa5/"]Otto Rauhala[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/tuulola-joni/xpsGoyZp/"]Joni Tuulola[/a] to mount a fightback - three minutes after conceding, [b]Rauhala played the puck back to Tuulola at the blue line, and his speculative shot went all the way through.[/b][/p][p]With just under 11 minutes to play, the comeback was really on when [b]Rauhala tried a shot from the left that was blocked, and coming in from the left was Tuulola to collect the rebound in the centre and find the gap through the crowd and past the goaltender to make it [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/hockey/ilves-Oh5uGzDT/tappara-llrWVOwG/?mid=AH7xXhH6"]3-2[/a].[/b][/p][p]But having set up the grandstand finish, Tappara failed to find the equalising goal, and Ilves held on to beat their Tampere rivals and take a 1-0 series lead. The pair meet again on 19th April, with the fourth-seeds the designated hosts that time.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/hockey/finland/liiga/"]Follow the Liiga playoff semi-finals on Flashscore.[/a][/b][/p]