SaiPa vs JYP

The first period ended scoreless despite JYP enjoying early momentum, helped by a holding minor on SaiPa defenceman Vertti Svensk at 1:47. JYP could not convert, and SaiPa grew into the frame as it went on. Shots on goal and face-off wins were dead even at 8-8 through 20 minutes per the official game report on saipa.fi.

SaiPa struck first at 25:25 of the second period on the power play. New signing Miikka Salomäki worked the puck from the left corner to Petr Fridrich at the face-off dot, and Fridrich's pass picked out Einar Emanuelsson alone in front for a redirect past JYP goaltender Oskari Salminen.

JYP answered inside two minutes. Roni Jokinen drove off the left-wing wall and finished with a forehand move at 27:24, making it 1-1.

SaiPa regained the lead at 31:16 — again with the man advantage. Another new arrival, Petrus Palmu, carried the puck over the offensive blue line and threaded a pass to Janne Naukkarinen, who spotted Patrik Siikanen creeping in from the far side. Siikanen one-timed it past Salminen for a 2-1 lead that held into the second intermission.

The decisive goal came 2:29 into the third period — a third power-play marker. Malte Setkov was called for holding at 42:29. On the kill, Valtteri Ojantakanen broke in alone on Kari Piiroinen, but the SaiPa netminder made the save. Fridrich collected the loose puck, fed Aarne Intonen through the neutral zone, and Intonen returned it to Fridrich who wired a wrist-shot into the far corner.

JYP pulled within one at 54:26 when Santeri Huovila swept home a rebound after Jere Lassila hit the left post on a backhand from a loose-face-off scramble. SaiPa held on through the final six minutes.

Piiroinen's save on Ojantakanen's shorthanded breakaway at 42:29 — seconds into the third-period power play that produced Fridrich's goal — was the defining sequence. Had Ojantakanen scored, JYP would have equalised while shorthanded and carried fresh momentum. Instead, Fridrich turned the same shift into a 3-1 lead that JYP could not fully erase.

• Petr Fridrich (SaiPa): One goal (the eventual winner) and a primary assist on Emanuelsson's opener. Involved in two of three power-play strikes. Player of the match.
• Einar Emanuelsson (SaiPa): Scored the first goal of SaiPa's pre-season on his debut, tipping home from the slot on the power play.
• Kari Piiroinen (SaiPa): Made the critical stop on Ojantakanen's breakaway at 42:29 that turned the game decisively in SaiPa's favour.
• Roni Jokinen (JYP): JYP's most dangerous forward, scoring a solo effort to briefly level the game.

SaiPa converted all three power-play opportunities (3/3), a rate that is unsustainable over a full season but defined this single match. JYP went 0/1 with the man advantage. The even-strength play was far more balanced — JYP controlled the opening 10 minutes and carried territorial edge in stretches, while SaiPa scored all three goals with the extra man. Shots on goal and face-off wins were dead even at 8-8 through the first period, suggesting a tight contest that special teams ultimately separated.

SaiPa advanced to the Marski Cup final on Saturday 15 August at 18:00 EEST at Let's Go Areena in Mikkeli, facing the winner of Jukurit vs Jokerit played on Friday evening. JYP dropped into the bronze-medal game at 14:00 on the same day against the loser of that match. For SaiPa, the 3/3 power-play performance provides an early positive signal under new-look forward additions Emanuelsson, Fridrich and Palmu. JYP, despite losing, entered the tournament with more pre-season minutes played (two Tampere Cup games, both wins) than SaiPa, who were playing their first pre-season fixture of the 2026-27 campaign.

A pre-season game decided entirely by special teams. SaiPa's power play operated at 100% conversion and that was enough to overcome a JYP side that looked sharper at even strength in the opening period. The Piiroinen save on Ojantakanen was the sequence that decided it. Both teams will take different lessons forward — SaiPa their PP execution, JYP the need to match special-teams efficiency in a tournament where a single game separates finalists from bronze participants.