The last time Leksand visited Stockholm on Boxing Day, the away team was far superior and won 5–0 in front of a packed Avicii Arena - 13,950 spectators, many of them Leksand supporters.
Lukas Vejdemo scored two of Leksand's goals. On Saturday, the Stockholm native, who has a history with Djurgården at both senior and junior level, was once again one of the scorers in the 5–2 victory in front of another large crowd.
Bounce back after the Olympic break
The 30-year-old center scored the 2–2 goal early in the second period, which meant that Leksand had recovered from a 0–2 deficit after Djurgården's two quick goals early in the first. Joe Snively and Anton Frondell had made it 1–0 and 2–0 respectively within 99 seconds before Leksand's Tinus Luc Koblar reduced it to 1–2 after five minutes of play.
After Vejdemo's 2–2 equalizer, Oskar Lang gave Leksand a 3–2 lead midway through the second period - and scored the team's third straight goal of the game. In the third period, Djurgården could not recover from the collapse from 2–0 to 3–2, and the game moved on to 4–2 after Michael Lindqvist scored in a power play, with Anton Johansson making it 5–2 into an empty net.
"We work together and do it for each other. That's what I'm most impressed by," coach Johan Hedberg told TV4 Play.
At the end of the match, Leksand's supporters sang in Globen while Djurgården's supporters were noticeably quieter.
"We come out well in the first half but then we lose it," Djurgården defender Philip Holm told TV4 Play.
In-form Leksand thus continues to take important points in their bid to avoid the relegation qualifiers and the risk of dropping to HockeyAllsvenskan. The bottom-ranked side has taken points in all five games after the Olympic break and has yet to lose in regulation time.
Tight at the bottom
In parallel with the match in Stockholm, second-placed HV71 took an important 2–1 away win against Timrå. This means that the gap between Leksand (50 points) and HV71 (53 points) is still three points with five rounds left in the regular season.
Örebro, the first team on safe ground above the relegation-qualifying line, also has 53 points and will host top team Rögle later on Saturday evening when the 47th SHL round is completed.
Djurgården is currently ninth with 64 points.
