Defenceman Kristian Nakyva has been an offensive force for Lulea Hockey all season. On Tuesday night in Skelleftea, he came through when they needed him.

by Derek O'Brien, with quotations from Markus Tervamaki, translated by Henrik Lundqvist

SKELLEFTEA – All season long, Finnish defenceman Kristian Nakyva has given Lulea Hockey an offensive spark. Back in October he said that playing in the Swedish league suited him, and he's backed that up.

With 20 points in 36 SHL games, he leads Lulea in scoring and is fifth in the league among defencemen. He's done well on the international scene, too – with now 10 points in 11 Champions Hockey League games he's tied for third among d-men, tied with Red Bull Salzburg's Matthias Trattnig (who played only eight games) and trailing Frolunda Gothenburg's Erik Gustafsson, who has 17 points and counting.

In the first game of the Semi-Finals in Skelleftea on Tuesday, Nakyva tried again to provide that spark from the back end. It took a while, but he got it going. He had one shot on goal in the first period, a laser that would have given his team a 2–0 lead and seemed marked for the top corner but was denied by the glove of Markus Svensson. Instead, Skelleftea tied the game in the second period and took the lead early in the third when Patrik Zackrisson's shot went in off fellow Lulea defenceman Jan Sandstrom.

"It was a little tough for us," Nakyva told luleahockey.se. "We had a tough time for a while after that. They got good pressure and good energy off that goal."

Eventually, though, Lulea managed to turn the tide with the help of Nakyva, who fired four shots on Svensson in the third period. The Skelleftea keeper handled three of them.

"We got better in the last ten minutes of the game, pressured hard and they gave us some power plays. And luckily we got the goal."

Lulea got five power plays in the game, including three in a row in the last six minutes. They failed to convert on the first four they got, including a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:05, though they had their chances. 

"I think we were pretty good," Nakyva said of the power play. "We were shooting a lot and tried to keep it simple."

The goal came right at the start of the fifth power play. From a scramble off the draw, Daniel Zaar got the puck back to Nakyva at the point. "I took the space to the middle and tried to get it through. There were three guys going to the net. It bounced, or something happened and it went in."

With just 1:04 to play, that was enough to earn Lulea the road tie, setting the stage nicely for the second game of the series, which will be played in Lulea. 

"It's a good situation for us," Nakyva said, looking ahead to next Tuesday. "It's a home game and we can take the win there."

If they do, a spot in the CHL Final awaits them.