A 2-1 win after penalties was revenge in Tampere for Jukurit, who were beaten 3-0 in Mikkeli 24 hours earlier, and have now recovered from a blip in form to win four of their last five matches, while Ilves drop to third, a place above Jukurit, after winning just three of their last seven.
The only goals in regulation came early in the third period, as Luke Henman's strike was cancelled out by Christoffer Sedoff. In the shootout, 10 penalties were missed before Alex Lintuniemi finally scored for the visitors, and Aleks Haatanen was unable to respond for Ilves.
Ilves' defeat allowed SaiPa to go second, as they beat Vaasan Sport 3-1 for their fifth win in a row. The visitors scored a goal in each period through Nick Zabaneh, Patrik Siikanen and Petr Fridrich before Lari Heikkinen scored late to avoid a shutout, as Sport drop into the bottom three.
Lukko also recorded a fifth win in a row and went a point clear at the top of the table with a 3-1 win over TPS Turku, who sit eighth. The match followed the same pattern as SaiPa's, as Henri Ikonen, Alex Beaucage and Mikael Ruohomaa scored a goal per period, before Joel Maatta struck a consolation.
JYP have climbed to fifth following a 4-1 win over Assat, who slip to seventh after three defeats in a row. KalPa have moved out of the relegation zone with a 5-1 thumping of Karpat, as the Oulu side missed out on reaching the top four.
Tappara have lost four of their last five after Pelicans got the better of them 5-4 after a shootout, while IFK Helsinki beat Hameenlinna 6-3 to take their opponents' place in the top 12. At the bottom, Jokerit won 6-3 at KooKoo to put seven points between the strugglers.
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