Things were going wonderfully well for Leksands back on January 27th.
They had travelled to Löfbergs Arena to take on the then second-placed Färjestad and came away with an impressive 4-0 victory. In doing so, Leksands not only broke an eight-game losing streak against their opponents, they moved to just one point behind them in the SHL standings with a game in hand.
It felt like it could be a turning point for their season, and it was; however, the direction they turned sent them tumbling off a cliff.
Leksands would go on to suffer a seven-game losing streak, including a 4-1 revenge win by Färjestad at the Tegera Arena followed by a humbling 6-1 home defeat to league-leaders Växjö. A team that had been eyeing-up second place only a couple of weeks before was now facing a battle to finish inside the top six.
Head Coach Charles Berglund and his team needed something special to turn things around. They got it on February 24th when Luleå came to town.
The game couldn’t have started any worse for them as Frédéric Allard gave the visitors the lead 28 seconds into the contest. When they went 0-2 down seven minutes into the Second Period, the seven-game losing streak looked like it was heading towards eight.
Instead, a situation that might have made their heads drop only served to inspire them.
Leksands scored three times in the next 11 minutes, two from Peter Cehlarik and one from Max Veronneau, to take an unlikely 3-2 lead with two minutes to go in the period. They had turned the game completely on its head and were ready to see out the Second Period, put a plan together during the intermission and then snap that losing streak in style.
That was until 10 seconds to go when Pontus Andreasson scored his second of the period to make it 3-3, stunning Tegera Arena into silence.
Just as winning can become a habit, so can losing. Confidence levels drop and decision-making slows; every small mistake seems to cost you and every ricochet of the puck seems to go against you. As every loss adds up it becomes even harder to break the sequence and this game against Luleå was like the last seven games on repeat: it was happening again and it felt like there was no way to stop it.
And then, with five seconds remaining of the 60 minutes, everything changed.
The puck slid across to the right of the goal into Max Veronneau’s path, with Luleå’s goaltender Joel Lassinantti prone on the ice. He flicked it up and over into the net and sparked jubilant scenes as almost eight games of pent-up frustration exploded into unbridled joy.
Charles Berglund’s team have won all three games since then, the latest being a 4-1 victory against Malmö on Saturday, to go from a seven-game losing streak to a four-game winning streak and counting.
With seventh-placed Timrå taking a 5-3 loss at home against Skellefteå, Leksands now sit in sixth place with a three-point cushion, a superior goal difference (+22 over Timrå) and only four games of the regular season to go. Oh, and the final evening sees the two teams squaring off at Tegera Arena.
There’s still a lot of hockey to play, but if Leksands can secure a top six finish then the trials and tribulations they have been through over the past month should hold them in good stead for dealing with a quarter-final potentially against Skellefteå and beyond.
