On the back of beating Luxembourg's Differdange and a match with Stjarnan to come later this week, Ilves did not let their UEFA Conference League campaign get in the way of league matters, ending a run of three without a win.
Teemu Hytonen had his opening goal cancelled out by Matej Hradecky in the 42nd minute, but Ilves were not willing to settle for going in level at the break, and two minutes later they retook the lead through Oliver Pettersson.
Into the final quarter of the match and the away side gave themselves a two-goal cushion thanks to a wonderful move which started out wide on the left, and finished with Jardell Kanga squaring for Hytonen to roll his second into an empty net.
TPS' hopes of a comeback were dealt a blow soon after, when Oscar Haggstrom was sent off for a second bookable offence. Two defeats in their last three keeps the Turku side in eighth, one place and now only three points above Ilves.
With six regular season matches still to play, Mariehamn have already guaranteed themselves a place in the Relegation Group, falling to their ninth consecutive league defeat. With zero wins and four points, it is already impossible for them to pass sixth-placed Gnistan, on 25 points.
The latest side to beat them, Lahti, went ahead midway through the first half when Romain Sans set up Yohan Cassubie to break the deadlock, but they failed to increase the lead before the break, as Sans had a penalty saved by Kevin Lund.
However, Lund was powerless to stop Lahti going clear 10 minutes into the second half, as Martim Augusto's cross was met by a brilliant overhead kick by Neemias. Lahti stay seventh but that's now three wins in a row and five without defeat.
On Sunday 19th, Inter Turku handed the advantage in the title race to KuPS by playing out a goalless draw at Jaro, which means the Kuopio side end the round two points clear at the top.
The away side dominated with 23 shots, of which six were on target, but failure to find a way through means it's now five draws in the last six for FC Inter, while Jaro are unbeaten in two but stay 11th in the table.