Tommi Niemelä makes a strong claim about Ilves’ game
Ilves suffered a 2–1 loss to HIFK on Wednesday in Helsinki. After a scoreless first period, Ilves opened the scoring in the first minute of the second period through Canadian center Luke Henman. However, HIFK came back in the final period and took the lead with goals from Jere Somervuori and Lassi Vanhatalo.
Ilves won an impressive eight out of its first nine games of the super season. Since then, the team’s performance has declined. In the last nine games, they have only collected three wins. Ilves’ head coach Tommi Niemelä is not, however, worried about the team’s play.
– We are playing better now than we did at the beginning of the season. At the moment, the results are not what we want. We probably won a game early in the season that we shouldn’t have, and now we are losing one that we should win.
Ilves has lost two consecutive games with a score of 2–1. The attack is currently missing Lukas Jasek, which according to Niemelä affects the team’s play.
– Henman’s line creates a significant number of chances and opportunities to score in every game. However, there is a clear lack of purposefulness in the goal-scoring play. It really bothers me that we don’t quite understand the importance of playing towards the goal and driving to the net.
Niemelä has been rumored in the media as a candidate for the HIFK coaching position for next season. According to Ilta-Sanomat, negotiations have already progressed significantly. When asked about the topic after Wednesday night’s game, Niemelä did not elaborate on the matter.
– It is pointless for me to comment on anything that is not in any way relevant to this game. Let everyone speculate as they wish.
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