Hameenlinna had really made Tappara work for their 2-1 win in game one, and if there was any remaining doubt that the lowest seeds wouldn't provide a worthy test for the regular season title winners, it was quashed in the first 40 minutes tonight.
The opening powerplay of the game had almost expired when HPK finally punished Justin Addamo's hooking violation, only for neat interplay between Petteri Nikkila and Cameron Wright to set up Sami Paivarinta to fire home the go-ahead goal in the eighth minute.
And the home side were in no mood to sit back and defend - just over a minute into period two, Elmeri Eronen found Olli Korhonen, and when he beat Christian Heljanko, the upset was well and truly on. The HPK defence was tested at times, but they led the shot count after two periods and deserved their lead.
The Battle Axe kept plugging away, and were rewarded eight minutes into the third period, when a controlled attack resulted in Addamo finding Jesper Mattila right in front, and he kept his cool to slot the puck past Kim Saarinen.
That was one of 12 shots on goal Tappara had in the final 20 minutes, but HPK held out over a nervy final 12 minutes to hold on for a 2-1 win and level the series.
After a 3-0 series sweep against JYP in the wildcard round and a 1-0 overtime success in game one, Pelicans have finally been beaten in the playoffs, and resoundingly so, going down 5-0 at home to KooKoo.
A poor start by the home side saw them cough up possession behind their own net, allowing Vilmos Gallo to tee up Joonas Oden to score after one minute and six seconds. Neither side were able to make use of powerplays later in the opening period, before KooKoo doubled their lead.
Coincidentally, the second goal came one minute and six seconds into period two, but this time the roles were reversed, as Oden set up Gallo to make it 2-0. Things got worse for the Lahti side when Onni Lind's trip was punished on the resulting powerplay by Marcus Davidsson midway through the game.
There was time for Davidsson to score his second and the visitors' fourth before the period was up, as Oden added his third point by laying the puck back for Davidsson to beat the goaltender at the near post with a fierce strike.
Pelicans somewhat made a fist of it in the final 20 minutes, taking half of their 20 total shots on goal, but Eetu Randelin was unbeatable as he earned a shutout, with the scoring completed three minutes from time by Veeti Miettinen.
Both of these quarter-final series move back to Kouvola and Tampere, respectively, for their game three encounters on Thursday 2nd April.