After advancing to the CHL semi-final, Kärpät Oulu's Joonas Kemppainen and Ivan Huml talk about their quarter-final against SaiPa Lappeenranta and upcoming battle against Frölunda Gothenburg.

by David Mičke

OULU – Kärpät Oulu are the only Finnish team in left in the CHL and are getting set to face powerful Swedish club Frölunda Gothenburg in the semi-finals. “There will be a bit rivalry. There are lot of Finns on our team and Frölunda basically consist of only Swedish players,” said Joonas Kemppainen who scored extremely important goal in the quarter-finals against SaiPa.

Kärpät had a two-goal advantage after the first quarter-final game, but SaiPa came close to equalizing the overall score in the second game. For almost two periods SaiPa led the game by a 1–0 score; however, in the very last second of the second period, Kemppainen surprised goalkeeper Jussi Markkanen with a tight-angle shot.

“That was a hugely important goal. After that we were the better team and had the game under control,” said Kärpät alternate captain Ivan Huml. Kärpät  eventually won the game 3–2, taking the series by a 5–2 aggregate score to advance to the semi-finals.

“I think they are among the best teams in all of Europe. Frölunda are good skating team, they're quite young but full of really good players with lot of energy,” Kemppainen figures. 

Some of those young, speedy players include 19-year-old winger Andreas Johnsson and 22-year-old defenceman Erik Gustafsson. Together with Mathis Olimb they are the top three scorers in the CHL. They get veteran leadership from captain Joel Lundqvist, who also wore the “C” on his jersey for Team Sweden during last year's World Championships. 

Any time a team from Sweden and a team from Finland face each other, it's a big deal. Because the rosters of Kärpät and Frölunda are largely made up of players from their respective countries, they will be similar to an international games. Finland, called Suomi in the local language, is a very proud country that had to fight for centuries to gain its independence. After enduring almost seven centuries of Swedish rule, Finland is sometimes called the “little brother” of Sweden. In this sibling rivalry, there is nothing Finns like better than to beat their big brothers.  

“We are the only representative of Finland in the league left, so I believe that the whole country, despite the north versus south rivalry, will be with us,” Huml hopes.