SaiPa Lappeenranta won 4-2 in Tampere, and the game turned on a five-minute stretch of the first period that flipped a 1-0 deficit into a 1-3 lead. Tappara spent the rest of the night chasing, and never got closer than one.
Henrik Haapala opened it at 6 minutes, Oliver Suvanto assisting, before Patrik Siikanen tied it at 12 off Nicholas Zabaneh's feed and Einar Emanuelsson made it 1-2 a minute later, Ondrej Trejbal credited. Siikanen struck again at 17 from Petrus Palmu for 1-3, and after Kasper Simontaival's second-period goal at 39, assisted by Kasper Kulonummi, pulled Tappara to 2-3, SaiPa closed it with an unattributed goal at 59.
Siikanen's two goals were the difference, both inside the first period. The period split tells it plainly: SaiPa won the first 3-1 and the third 1-0, with Tappara's only other goal coming in the middle frame.