TOI 21:11 / PK
Topi Niemelä was carrying the golden helmet (most points for his team) in this game for Kärpät. He had a solid performance, even though his offensive impact remained a bit small, which was partly because his team didn’t get a single PP in the game. He was great in breakouts and defended pretty well.
Niemelä’s mobility and on-puck skills looked absolutely great. With the help of those, he supported his team’s rushes and was excellent at moving the puck. At breakouts, he opened the game with precise passes. It didn’t seem to matter much whether he was under the pressure or not, he got the puck for his teammates. I liked his passing game as he mostly went for high-% passes, in which way he avoided unnecessary mistakes. He kept his feet moving at breakouts, and constantly tried to find good passing lanes. He also showed ability to carry the puck by himself, if it was needed.
Niemelä was active in the offensive zone, and constantly looked for free space without the puck, instead of just standing on the blue line. He used his mobility and puck skills on the blue line, but couldn’t get any shots today. He also likes to be a bit aggressive and move around the offensive zone, which is fine as long as the forwards back him up. Niemelä showed good IQ as there were a few situations where he read the game very well.
Niemelä defended the zone well. He utilized his good mobility to stay with the puck carrier and was pretty strong along the boards. He also used his stick on defence pretty well. Niemelä was used on PK, where he blocked passing lanes with his stick and positioning. There was also one very nice defensive interception where the opponent would’ve had a really good scoring chance.
There were a couple of situations where Niemelä could’ve closed the gap more effectively, which also led to him being deked out once, but mostly his gap control was good and he pressured the puck carrier very well on rushes. His aggressive rush support also backfired once as it led to 2-on-1 situation against (opponent didn’t score though). He couldn’t get any shots on goal which made his performance in today’s game a bit ineffective.