S-Kiekko completed a surprising turnaround at Urho Jyvaskyla's ground, winning 7-4 in the Suomi-sarja on Thursday evening. The visitors were fifth in the table ahead of the fixture, while the hosts sat ninth after four matches. By then you would expect the home side to be the ones pressing forward, but the game flipped on its head.
Both teams arrive at this point with zero points in the standings. The season has barely begun, so the table tells you nothing about where either side might finish. What it does show is that S-Kiekko have played one fewer match than Urho Jyvaskyla, which makes their position even less meaningful at this stage.
We had backed the home side to win, giving them 65 per cent confidence in our preview. The prediction failed, and the reason was simple enough. Urho Jyvaskyla were second to everything in the opening period, and S-Kiekko took advantage immediately.
The hosts have won four of their five games so far, beating Hunter 4-3 and SaPKo 2-1 in their last two outings. They looked comfortable against Titans 7-5 and Virkya 4-3, but and here's the thing, comfort doesn't always translate to away days.
S-Kiekko's recent record is mixed. They lost 4-1 to Laser HT and 4-1 to Riemu, but bounced back with a 3-1 win over SaPKo. That form had them sitting ninth, but the away performance showed they were capable of more.
The final score leaves both sides with identical point totals after this round. The gap in the table remains zero, as it has all season. S-Kiekko will feel they have taken something from the trip, while Urho Jyvaskyla will need to work out where it went wrong.
