Three power-play goals helped Frolunda Gothenburg to put one foot in the Champions Hockey League Semi-Finals for the third straight season, as they shut out SHL rivals Linkoping HC in tonight's first leg. Read more in Gamecentre.

by Luke Fisher

A scoreless first period was a relatively even affair, with Frolunda just shading the better of the chances. Arguably the best of the entire period fell to the Indians' captain Joel Lundqvist, but his slapshot was well saved by Linkoping netminder Jacob Johansson.

Into the middle period, and this was all about Frolunda pressing home their dominance with the extra man. The home side took the lead with Broc Little sat in the visitors' penalty box for slashing, and needed only 18 seconds of the power play for Johan Sundstrom to poke the puck under Johansson at the 20:40 mark. Just under six minutes later Frolunda doubled their lead, Simon Hjalmarsson pouncing on a turnover that saw a loose puck in the slot, and he made no mistake with the finish from a few metres out.

With the period ticking down, a roughing call on Niklas Persson gave Frolunda another chance with the extra skater, and 10 seconds later Victor Olofsson found the back of Johansson's net for 3-0. That goal came not long after Emil Sylvegard forced a smart leg save our of Dan Bakala in the Indians' net on the breakaway.

"I'm obviously happy and proud, but it's another game, another day," said a humble Bakala, who made 29 saves for the shutout – his third straight, when counting his last two SHL starts. "They'd beaten us twice already this year in league play and we weren't going to let it happen again."

Linkoping started the third period in that awkward position, caught between the need for goals and not conceding any more. It did however get worse for them – a Robin Figren slapshot on the power play rocketed into the net to make it 4-0 with 43:44 gone. Things threatened to get a little heated as the game draw on, but a couple of penalties soon sorted it out. Linkoping had a late power play chance of their own to get on the board, but were unable to do so leaving Frolunda with a commanding 4-0 win.

"We've put ourselves in a tough spot, but we've seen before that strange things happen in hockey," said Linkoping coach Dan Tanges, who remains confident despite the mountain they have to overcome on home ice. "If we can lose a game 4-0, I'm pretty confident that we can win a game by four goals, but of course it's a tough spot."