Djurgarden will be harder to stop at home

On their home ice, KalPa Kuopio played solid team defence and got a 31-save performance from Eero Kilpelainen to keep the dangerous Djurgarden offence off the board and win 2-0. 

“They were very strong,” said KalPa coach Pekka Virta. “We were in trouble from time to time, no doubt about it, so keeping that in mind we are very satisfied with the score.” 

“The game was tough and even. Despite the low score I think the game was tougher than that and it could had ended in either team’s advantage,” said Djurgarden coach Robert Ohlsson.

Now the scene shifts to Stockholm, where things figure to get a bit more difficult for KalPa. The two-goal lead could disappear quickly, but it's better than nothing.

“Being two goals ahead going to Stockholm next week is definitely much better than trailing by two,” Virta understated. “Djurgarden will come out even stronger and we must play much better than we did. We must show our dominance right away in Stockholm, since in this game we were kind of inspectors for some parts of the game and gave the opponent too much space to execute their gameplan. We must be stronger, bolder and more confident next Tuesday.” 

Looking ahead, Ohlsson said, “In the second game in Stockholm we just have to keep our focus on scoring at least the two goals that we need. That’s our main issue. Next game will be intense like this one and we need to be able to move forward with the puck.”

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