Lulea Hockey earned a hard-fought 3–2 home-ice victory over regional rival Skelleftea AIK to win the semi-final and earn a berth in the Champions Hockey League final. Lulea will also play host to the league's grand finale on 3 February.
Lulea Hockey 3–2 Skelleftea AIK
Lulea win series 5–4 on aggregate | WATCH highlights here
by Derek O'Brien, quotations from Henrik Lundqvist and SVT
LULEA – Their Swedish Hockey League seasons have gone vastly different, but on this day Lulea Hockey got the better of their closest and fiercest league rival. Skelleftea AIK are the defending Swedish champion and lead the league again so far this season, but it is Lulea will play for the European championship.
"Really great!" was how Lulea forward and game-winning-goal scorer Jan Sandstrom answered when asked how he felt. "It's always nice to beat Skelleftea, and even nicer in a game like this."
The two teams had tied the first leg of the semi-final in Skelleftea, which simply meant the winner of this game moved on to the final. That was Lulea, who led 2–1 after one period, opened up a two-goal lead late in the second period, then held on to win by one. The biggest reasons for the victory were the penalty killing, which only surrendered one goal on seven Skelleftea power plays, and the goaltending of Joel Lassinantti, who stopped 24 of 26 shots – most of those in the first two periods when his team took most of its penalties.
"We didn't play our best. Maybe a little too defensive, but that's the way you have to play to beat Skelleftea," Sandstrom continued. "We've had great penalty killing all season, and today we got a little extra practice. We took some stupid penalties."
Karl Fabricius opened the scoring for Lulea at 5:41, but just 10 seconds after the goal Cam Abbott was called for boarding and defenceman Tim Heed tied it on a blast from the point on the power play. Daniel Zaar got Lulea the lead back, and they were forced to protect it late in the period as Skelleftea had two more power plays, including a two-man advantage for nine seconds.
In the second period Skelleftea got two more power plays but couldn't score, then late in the period Sandstrom scored on Lulea's second power play of the game. Despite leading in shots 23–11 after two periods, Hans Wallson's Skelleftea squad trailed by a pair with one period to go.
"The bottom line is our power play couldn't score tonight," Wallson said bluntly. "We got some shots, but not as many quality shots as we wanted."
"In the attacking zone we were too much to the outside. We didn't get close to the net," said Skelleftea captain Erik Forsell, who assisted on both of his team's goals. "I don't think our passing game was good enough."
Protecting a two-goal lead, Lulea completely shut down Skelleftea in the third, limiting their northern Swedish rivals to just three shots. Skelleftea did score a late goal with 1:09 to play, however. They were shorthanded, but playing five-a-side with goalie Erik Hanses on the bench, and Martin Lundberg beat Lassinantti with a long wrister to the far side.
However, any hopes of tying the score and sending the series to overtime were quickly dashed when, still shorthanded, Forsell iced the puck from his own zone but the puck sailed over the far end glass and out of play, resulting in a delay-of-game penalty. Hanses came out of the net to again make it 5-on-5 on the ice, but Lulea kept the puck away from their own net to preserve the victory.
"Clumsy. I didn't even dump it hard," Forsell said, explaining the clearing attempt that got away from him. He went on to say, "That's not where we lost the game. There were many other things we did too poorly. Lulea were better than us."
The crowd of 5540 were loud throughout the game, and clearly enjoyed cheering their team on to victory against a big rival in a big game.
"The atmosphere was really great here today," Sandstrom agreed. "It's been a long time since we last had atmosphere this great. The fans always sing, no matter who we play. But today it was a little extra, I think."
And the Lulea fans will get another chance to cheer their team on in CHL play and it will be the biggest one – the final in two weeks against Frolunda Gothenburg.