After three victories on the spin, the team from Kuopio missed the chance to wrap up a 4-1 series win in front of their own fans when they went down 4-2 in game five yesterday.
They were out to get over the line away from home, and took the lead in the 13th minute of the game when Benjamin Korhonen picked up the puck in his defensive zone, and just kept skating, before unleashing a strike that was too much for goaltender Michael Hutchinson.
But late in the first period, SaiPa hit back - Mikko Petman did well to win the puck back in a dangerous area, and he selflessly set up Mark Pysyk, who drove it past Stefanos Lekkas.
KalPa had three powerplays to SaiPa's one in the second period, but neither side could use them to their advantage and the match was finely poised at 1-1 with 20 minutes to play.
With just over seven minutes remaining, the Lappeenrannan jaahalli erupted when the home side took the lead.
Antti Kalapudas' loose pass was kept alive by Samuli Niinisaari, who kept his composure to play the puck back to a free Kalapudas in front of the net, and he gave Lekkas no chance.
But with the hosts only 68 seconds from forcing a game seven decider, KalPa found an equaliser.
Following a faceoff, the puck was played back to Juuso Maenpaa, and his strike from just inside the blue line took a deflection and flew past Hutchinson to level the scores again.
Having taken the game to an extra period, the momentum was with KalPa, and they made it count in the seventh minute of overtime.
After plenty of sustained pressure from the visitors, Aleksi Klemetti passed from behind the net to the arriving Filip Westerlund, and he fired the puck into the top corner to win the Liiga Playoffs and send the travelling fans into raptures.
SaiPa had to be content with a first silver medal in what is still their best Liiga campaign, while Kuopio is now home to the Finnish champions in both hockey and football.
