The lowest seeds left in the competition held off a late Tappara rally to win game one in what was technically an away match for Ilves, but with the whole of the best-of-seven series played at Nokia Arena, how much home advantage would count was up for debate.
But in front of their own fans, Ilves made a real case for it - in an opening period which was beset by penalties on both sides of the ice, Ilves finally made use of a powerplay after 17 minutes, when Matias Mantykivi squared the puck to Luke Henman on the right, and he finished in style.
The Lynx came out for the second period with their tails up, and made it count two minutes later when Samuli Ratinen carried the puck right around the Tappara goal before his pass-cum-shot deflected in off Aleksi Matinmikko's skate.
It was 3-0 just past the midpoint in the match when Matic Torok picked up a loose puck on the edge of his own zone and raced away unchallenged before firing home. Then, inside the last four minutes of the period, Ratinen netted his third of the series with a quick one-timer from the right wing.
Tappara came alive in the third period in game one, but they fell apart this time - it was all too easy for Simon Johansson to jink his way through the defence before lifting goal number five over the goaltender, and when Jonathan Andersson was called for roughing soon after, Torok completed his brace on the resulting powerplay.
Dominik Pavlat made 17 saves to complete his shutout, as Henman, Johansson and Torok finished with three points each in a devastating 6-0 derby triumph that puts Ilves in a great position ahead of game three on Tuesday 21st, which also sees SaiPa and KooKoo return to action.