I was so engrossed in the three SHL play-off games last night that I didn’t do a livestream in the end. There was too much to keep up with, and too much to enjoy, to try to add running a livestream on top of it!
There’s sure to be more to come on Saturday, with the second games of the Quarter Final series involving Färjestad and Rögle, and Växjö and Luleå, so I’ll limit my review to some bitesize thoughts.
Skellefteå 4 – 3 Linköping (OT)
A crazy game to start their Quarter Final series and one in which both teams will come out of it with mixed emotions.
Skellefteå can bask in the glory of an Overtime winner, thanks to Filip Sandberg, and you have to be delighted with any win in the play-offs; however, Head Coach Robert Ohlsson will be cursing his team for throwing away a 3-0 lead. Had goalie Linus Söderström not been at the top of his game they could have easily lost and it was a stark reminder of the levels you have to maintain throughout the full sixty minutes to earn a victory in the SHL Play-offs.
As for Linköping, I joked on Twitter that they began the game as if they had got confused as to when it started! Being three goals down after 3:06 is calamitous enough, but all three goals were caused by their own errors, as Jesper Myrenberg should have saved the first one and the other two came from poor giveaways in their own zone. Although the terrible start and ultimate loss will sting, they should take some pride from the way in which they fought their way back into the game.
That especially applies to Myrenberg. He is under a lot of pressure with Marcus Högberg being ruled out for the series and to concede such a soft opening goal after 33 seconds would have seen a lesser professional crumble completely. The way he recovered from the first three minutes should give him some much needed confidence.
Frölunda 1 – 2 Leksand (OT)
The other Quarter Final also needed Overtime to produce a winner. In this case it was the away team that came away with the victory, although the scenes at the end might have confused you at first given the size and volume of the Leksand travelling support at the Scandinavium.
Max Veronneau is making a habit out of scoring late winners for Leksand and he did it again to give his team a 1-0 series lead. It was a tight game throughout and always felt like one goal would decide the outcome. Veronneau did amazingly well to get his shot off whilst falling under pressure to beat Lars Johansson.
Game Two on Sunday already feels like a huge game for Frölunda. It’s not impossible to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first two games at home, but they will have a mountain to climb if they fail to level the series before heading to Leksand.
Oskarshamn 4 – 2 HV71
In the Relegation series, Oskarshamn were also in must-win territory last night. 2-1 down in the series, they had to win at the Be-Ge Hockey Center to avoid being 3-1 down with two of the potential three remaining games being played at Husqvarna Garden.
They did just that and once again the spotlight was on forward Viktor Lodin. He has been the outstanding player over the first four games of the series and he proved the difference by setting up Austin Wagner to make it 2-2 and then scoring Oskarshamn’s third and fourth (the latter into an empty net).
If Lodin was the hero of the game, unfortunately we have to make HV71’s Åke Stakkestad the zero of the game.
Less than three minutes after his team had conceded the 2-2 equaliser short-handed, he took a needless slashing penalty to put his teammates back under pressure. They bailed him out by killing the penalty, only for Stakkestad to take another penalty within seconds of coming out of the box, this time for interference, from which Lodin gave his team the lead on the subsequent powerplay.
