The most attention-grabbing scenes in Wednesday evening's match at Hovet took place in the middle of the second period when twelve players, five from Djurgården and seven from Södertälje, found themselves in the penalty box at the same time.
The home team's veteran profiles Marcus Krüger and Dick Axelsson, as well as the visiting team's Danish star Nicolai Meyer, one goal and one assist in the match, were some of those who were shown out for roughing in connection with a brawl in the home team's zone.
Despite playing both 5-on-4 and 5-on-3, Djurgården failed to extend their lead, which was 5–1 before the penalty rush. The teams had a total of 14 and 28 penalty minutes in the second period, respectively. Figures that were 20 and 34 after the match.
Dubbla boxplay-mål
The Stockholm team's victory had been laid earlier – in previous play both with a numerical advantage and disadvantage in the period.
Captain Krüger had made it 3–1, Tyler Kelleher, one goal and four assists in the match, 4–1 in powerplay, and Albin Grewe 5–1 in boxplay.
In the beginning of the third period, SSK reduced to 2–5 through Nolan Stevens. No closer than that did the visiting team get, which won match 1 with 4–2 on Monday. Instead, two-goal shooter Filip Eriksson punctuated the drawn-out match with his 6–2 goal in numerical disadvantage in the match that ended 7–3.
It wasn't so structured today. But it's a win and we'll take it every day of the week, says Eriksson to TV4 Hockey.
Weigel's chicken wings
In the end of the match, several players were nagging. For example, Djurgården's Fredric Weigel made chicken wings with his arms towards the SSK players, who responded with signs for filming, showed the TV pictures from TV4 Hockey.
The semifinal now turns to Södertälje with match 3 in Scaniarinken on Friday.
The winner in the best of seven matches will face either Karlskoga or AIK in the Hockeyallsvenskan final later in April. The winner there will play in the SHL next season.
