Thanks to Covid-19 I am actually able to see Kallionkieli very soon because his team will play near to me in mid-September. That is at least something positive during these times.
I can't wait to see Golden Knights' first Finnish draft pick live also very first time in two weeks.
Well, on Sunday I was finally able to see Kallionkieli. I travelled a couple of hours to Helsinki to watch his game against local opponent Jokerit. HIFK lost the match 2-3 but I made some notes from every Kallionkieli's shift. The game was played at Helsinki Ice Hall which is the same place where I have seen also Dorofeyev and Morozov earlier. That is fun coincidence how I always end up watch VGK kids at that same building. Actually, this match was played at practise rink but nevertheless at the same building.
It was Kallionkieli's second match of the season. He played again in the first line at LW position with number 17. His linemates were small center J. Seppälä and right-handed winger J. Holopainen. At the warm-ups Kallionkieli showed his shooting abilities by putting the puck to the top-shelf a couple of times. He also practised a lot shooting from left side and cross-ice passes with his teammate. He was also on the ice until the last second which was a positive sign too. First impression was good.
Kallionkieli in front of my eyes:
https://i.imgur.com/q0Ko0Uul.jpg
Sweet top-shelf shot during warm-ups 3v2 practise:
Kallionkieli yläkulmasijoitus lämmittelyssä
Cross-ice passes during warm-ups:
Kallionkieli lämmittely3
This text will be very similar to the shift by shift guide I wrote about Morozov in February:
Vegas Golden Knights Prospect/Chicago Wolves AHL Thread II I will refer to Kallionkieli sometimes with two letters
MK to save time and space. Sorry for my bad English also if there are some weird sentenced.
1st period
First shift started from offensive zone. Kallionkieli rushed behind the net after the face-off but defender Luoto spinned away from him before Kallionkieli was able to tackle. After that Luoto passed the puck to the neutral zone and Jokerit scored from the following attack. Defending begins already at offensive zone so I will give a little minus to MK about that goal which I also filmed.
A clip from the first shift where Kallionkieli misses his forecheck and Jokerit scores ten seconds later.
In the second shift Kallionkieli forechecked with a strong stick and was able to steal the puck on the offensive blueline. He passed the puck onwards and Holopainen shot a wrister from the slot but Risikko saved. Rebound went to left wing where Kallionkieli was after his steal. He shot towards goal but the angle was too small to score. His line stayed on the ice. After the next face-off, Jokerit attacked towards HIFK's goal. Kallionkieli was able to win the puck battle near the defensive blue line and forced the puck back to the neutral zone. Good job. Jokerit attacked again and created a 2v1 situation. Kallionkieli skated towards own net and was just able to prevent cross-ice pass to backdoor with his extended stick. So, in this shift we saw two good executions without a puck from MK.
In the third shift Kallionkieli carried the puck to the offensive zone on the right side. Then he cutted to the middle but an opponent was able to block his wrister. The play was forced back to HIFK's defenzive zone but home team was able to pass the puck out of its zone quickly. Kallionkieli waited the pass on neutral zone and catched the high pass with his glove on the offensive blueline. Then he passed the puck to Seppälä who gave it quickly back to Kallionkieli. He got an open look from the slot but his backhander went just wide from the left. However, his backhand shot was pretty strong which was good to see live because you can't notice that kind of detail easily from the television.
In the fourth shift nothing happened but in the fifth Kallionkieli was in the corned and passed the puck to the blueline with a backhander but defender Tanskanen was not able to keep the puck on the offensive zone. Jokerit got an open look from the right wing. Shot went to corner and HIFK's defender passed it back to neutral zone quickly. Kallionkieli was again near the offensive blueline already but the pass via board went just a little bit too close to an opponent's defender Suomi who was able to take the puck just before Kallionkieli and HIFK didn't get an 2v1 attack unfortunately.
Next shift was three minutes before the period ended. His linemates Seppälä and Holopainen played as an shorthanded pair so MK sat on the bench for a while. In this shift after the offensive zone face-off, Kallionkieli grinded the behind the net with his line and battled hard. In the end he tackled with a huge power Jokerit's defender Tuhkanen. Kallionkieli got two minutes penalty from knee check. I already feared that he gets 5+20 minutes because referees discussed shortly about the tackle but luckily it was only minor penalty. I accidentally filmed also that shift and got that strong check on the video:
Huge hit by Kallionkieli in the end of his shift.
Last shift was 25 seconds before period ended. HIFK was on the power-play. MK battled against Tarkiainen near the boards and won the puck. He dived it to the blueline but Seppälä's shot was blocked. After the period ended MK defended his teammate who got a hard hit in the end. So, Kallionkieli seems to be pretty fiery character/personality like for example Marchessault.
Kallionkieli's TOI was 4:20 in the first period. He played eight shifts and shot once. Also one shot was blocked. Plus-minus rating was -1 due to the first shift where Jokerit scored.
2nd period
On the first minute Kallionkieli was on the ice on 4v5 situation for the first time because regular penalty-killer Ruusunen was on the penalty box. Kallionkieli played alongside young center Kaskimäki (16 years old). Kallionkieli skated by force the puck out of HIFK's zone and was able to create a shot to himself in 1v1 situation but shot was blocked by defender's stick. After the face-off he passed the loose puck to the blueline but defender's shot went wide.
In the second shift MK forechecked the puck to the HIFK behind the Jokerit's net. Then he protected the puck strongly but his cross-ice pass to the blueline was breaked off in the middle. On Saturday's match between these two teams those passes were successful but not in this match. MK's line stayed on the ice after Jokerit iced the puck. After the face-off MK took his own place in front of the goalkeeper but HIFK's cycle game was not successful. In the end of shift MK skated towards own goal and got a heavy hit on the defensive blueline. He dropped to his knees and breathed a couple times before he headed to the bench.
In the 28th minute MK got an cross-ice pass on the neutral zone. He taked the puck over on the left wing near the blue line and passed it onwards to Holopainen who shot towards Risikko without success. After the face-off Kallionkieli stealed the puck against one of his rivalries of the night, defender Manninen. Then he again protected the puck easily but was not able to find anybody because there was no room on the right side on the offensive zone.
Soon after that Jokerit D Luoto took 5+20 minutes for spearing so MK got a lot of power-play time. At the beginning of the power-play MK carried the puck twice to the offensive zone. He always accelerated on the left wing and then others dropped the puck him. It was nice to see that others trusted MK's skill level and he didn't disappoint because like I said he carried twice successfully the puck to the offensive zone with a great speed. At this time Kallionkieli was on the middle on his unit and Seppälä was on the left. Holopainen was on the right, Kaskimäki behind the net and Puhakka on the blueline. MK did not get puck touches anymore at this shift.
In the next PP shift Seppälä was on the middle and Kallionkieli on the left side so that's why he practised so much to shoot from the left side during warm-ups! He got an pass from the Kaskimäki behind the net but didn't hit it with a one-timer unfortunately. Timing was not correct. Again Kallionkieli was by the way free during zone entries but this time HIFK used its right side and almost twice the play stopped on the blueline because players were not on move on that side. They should have used Kallionkieli instead again because he carried the puck much better in the first PP shift.
In the third and last PP shift during five minutes power-play, Puhakka passed the puck from blueline to left side and Kallionkieli shot a wrister just wide bottom corner. In the end he shot again from the same spot but Salminen was able to block that shot.
Kallionkieli's shot from the left side went just wide.
On the 37th minute HIFK had an OZ face-off. Kallionkieli was btw always on the right side of the circle on face-offs because then he was in the position to shoot one-timer quickly. In this shift he rushed behind the net but Manninen was able to pass the puck onwards before MK came to forecheck. Defender Tanskanen kept the puck alive luckily and MK moved to his own office in front of the goalie. There was great traffic near the net but Jokerit blocked the shots from the blueline and forced the puck to the neutral zone. HIFK attacked again and MK got the pass to the OZ blueline. He lifted Manninen's stick and moved the puck to the left wing to his teammate who in the end shot the puck from the far left side towards goalie without a good result. However, in that shift Kallionkieli showed again that he has a strong stick without a puck.
After two periods TOI was 12:40 and there were 16 shifts all in all. Thanks to a major penalty Kallionkieli played over eight minutes in the second period because his line was the second PP unit.
3rd period
In the first shift Kallionkieli didn't forechecked on the front. He was behind the first forechecked in 1-2-2 shape and showed great defensive responsibility by following Jokerit's center and in the end won the 1v1 situation against him in the neutral zone near the board. Later on same shift he passed the puck quickly from the deep to the blueline with his backhand and then moved to the mask. His teammates cycled the puck 30 seconds at least and Marcus only stayed in front of the net. Finally he was able to move backdoor and got the pass there but his shot went to pads because another player came to same puck and MK didn't get perfect release.
Next shift was also on the OZ zone. Kallionkieli moved to the blueline a couple of times when defenders went to deep. He also kept the puck alive twice when being on the blueline. Next he got pass from Seppälä from the corner. MK took a couple of steps towards goal and shot a wrister but his loading took too much time and opponent blocked the shot. Kallionkieli needs to improve his shooting technique because at the moment his release takes too much time.
On the 47th minute PP shift MK was on the middle instead of left wing. He got pass again from Kaskimäki behind the net but shot went to pads. He continued pushing pads until the whistle so he really likes to be in front of the goal agitating opponents.
On the 49th minute MK played again SH shift with Kaskimäki and two defenders. Kallionkieli tried to block a shot by Salminen but wasn't exactly at the shot lane. Rebound was cleared luckily by HIFK defender. Then HIFK settled to 1-3 shape on neutral zone. DeBoer uses same shorthanded system in VGK so it is good that Kallionkieli gets already now practise about that system. He defended the left wing alongside defenders who were in the middle and right side. Kaskimäki was ahead of that trio as a lonely forechecker.
On the 51st minute Kallionkieli got his best scoring chance. Face-off was in the HIFK's end but Holopainen rushed to the neutral zone with the puck between two Jokerit players and created 2v1 chance. He passed to Kallionkieli who got 1v0 situation against Risikko. He tried Reilly Smith's favourite deke forehand-backhand but Risikko saved Kallionkieli's backhander with his glove. What a robbery. Finishing reminded me unfortunately too much about VGK's scoring troubles in the playoffs. Kallionkieli's line stayed still on the ice and they scored from their next attack. Kallionkieli and Holopainen passed between each other and crossed the neutral zone on that way. After the blueline Kallionkieli tried to pass to right wing but Latvala intercepted. Viitasalo tried to clear the loose puck but Lentamäki stopped the puck on blueline and shot towards goal. Puck went in luckily with a weird bounce. Kallionkieli got an assist but he shouldn't have got it because Jokerit clearly touched the puck before Lentamäki scored. On the other hand his zone entry was good so he deserved an assist from that perspective. I was happy of course because it was the first point scored which I saw live from the VGK player. Dorofeyev and Morozov didn't get any points when I was watching them.
Five minutes before the end HIFK took the goalie out and tried to score with 6v4 advantage. Kallionkieli shot once from the left side but just wide. Then he battled from the space in the middle during rest of the shift but didn't get any passes to the slot:
Kallionkielen laukaus ylivoimalla ohi etualakulman
Last shift was two minutes before the end. Kallionkieli gave good cross-ice pass to Holopainen who carried the puck to OZ zone. Then MK helped Seppälä near the boards but after the got the puck passed it pretty quickly to behind the net and there weren't any teammates. Luckily defender kept the play alive and MK moved to in front the goalie again. He almost got the touch to one shot from the blueline but it was a little bit too high.
Final statline was 0+1=1, +0. TOI was 21:09 and number of shifts was 24. Kallionkieli also recorded eight shots in total. He played also in third period over eight minutes when HIFK tried to comeback behind but they lost 2-3. From those eight shots all were from the left side of right circle. Three shots were shot from the left circle and one little bit more far. Kallionkieli recorded also three shots in front of the goal and one from the slot. I liked that kind of shot chart. He was in places where goals are scored usually.