Tappara were bruised after coming out the wrong side of a 5-4 thriller at home to IFK Helsinki yesterday, and it seemed they were still hurting inside the first three minutes today, when Niklas Ylitalo put TPS Turku in front.
Things got worse for the blunted Battle Axe six minutes into the second period when Lukas Wernblom doubled the hosts advantage, and TPS were in dreamland two minutes later, when Wernblom and Veli Matti Savinainen combined to set up Sisu Yliniemi to make it 3-0.
But Tappara finally found their groove after the midpoint, as Kristian Tanus got them on the board late in the second, and the comeback was well and truly on six minutes into the third when Benjamin Rautiainen made it 3-2, before TPS lost Sisu Lehtonen for cross-checking.
However, not only did the Turku side hold on, they wrapped things up late on when Wernblom scored an empty-netter, his third point in a 4-2 victory. A first win in three for TPS sees them climb up two places to 10th.
Tappara have two games in hand over SaiPa, but the gap between them is now just two points, after the Lapeenranta side secured a fourth win on the bounce by beating Jukurit 5-2.
They overcame an early scare to do so, as Aleks Haatanen put Jukurit ahead in the ninth minute with a powerplay strike, before Justin Addamo doubled the visitors' lead in the sixth minute of period two.
Yet, within 10 more minutes of play, SaiPa were in front - Santari Airola pulled one back before a pair of Maxime Fortier strikes after the 30-minute mark turned the match on its head, with all three goals assisted by Otto Kivenmaki.
The match was still alive until the final three minutes, when a pair of empty-net goals from Antti Kalapudas and Niklas Appelgren finally sealed the three points for SaiPa. It's four defeats in five now for the Mikkeli men, who stay a point outside the Playoff places.
SaiPa are now four points clear of third-placed Lukko, who were shocked in devastating fashion by bottom-of-the-table Vaasan Sport, who ended their five-match losing streak with a 6-1 victory - their biggest win of the season so far.
Sport laid the groundwork for an upset with an unanswered goal in each of the first two periods, before they scored four times in the final 20 minutes to ensure Lukko lost to both the current bottom two teams in the space of 24 hours. Philip Granath starred for Sport with one goal and three assists.
Ilves put an end to their poor recent run of one win in four by cruising to a 5-1 win at home to Assat. It's a win that takes the Lynx back into fifth place, a point behind JYP who weren't in action today. The Aces stay eighth as they are now on a run of one win in four of their own.
Goals from Brett Stapley and Oskars Batna ended a seven-game losing run for Pelicans, as they won 2-1 away at KooKoo, who drop back to sixth following a second defeat in a row. The Lahti side climb back above Karpat into 14th with their first win since 20th December.
In the late game, HIFK failed to build on their dramatic win over Tappara yesterday, as they fell to a 3-2 loss to Kiekko-Espoo on home ice. KE sit ninth following back-to-back wins, while the Helsinki side are 11th - the win over the league leaders is their only win in four.
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