Färjestad won the first quarterfinal over Skellefteå, but since then the Västerbotten team has won three straight matches and taken a 3-1 lead in matches.
This means that the reigning champion team can decide on away ground in Karlstad on Saturday.
In that case, it would be Färjestad's third straight quarterfinal exit since the SM gold in 2022.
Behind the loss lay three expulsions in the first period that Skellefteå utilized to 100 percent.
Two of the expulsions were criticized by Mitell:
I think it's incredibly strange refereeing. He (Viktor) Lodin gets hit so their player pulls off his helmet, so it should also have been an expulsion, and then the third one is four tripping in front of their goal and then they take our defender for holding in the corner. It doesn't feel like we get a "fair" chance, says Mitell to TV4 Play.
One, two, three
The same power play unit scored all three goals for Skellefteå.
Michael Brandsegg-Nygård dunked in 1-0 behind a screened Anders Lindbäck, Färjestad's goalkeeper. Pär Lindholm steered in 2-0 and Max Lindholm slammed in 3-0 on a rebound. Defender Pontus Johansson was credited with an assist on all three goals.
We've had a tough time in that game form, our five, nice to get a breakthrough today, says Max Lindholm.
Then only ten minutes of the match had been played and an unfortunate Lindbäck let in Skellefteå's first two shots. Färjestad's emergency solution on the goalkeeper side was 75 percent in the first period and the Karlstad team doesn't get it together in goalkeeper play.
Timrå equalized
Färjestad reduced to 1-3 through Axel Bergkvist at the end of the second period and began the third in numerical superiority.
But that chance was not taken advantage of and instead Oskar Vuollet could make it 4-1.
Färjestad reduced through Joakim Nygård, but a match penalty on Färjestad's Viktor Lodin, after a cross-checking in the face of Arvid Lundberg, ruined the chance to catch up.
Skellefteå scored two goals (a total of five in the match) in numerical superiority, through Vuollet and Anton Heikkinen.
Timrå equalized the match series against Frölunda to 2-2 after a late deciding goal.
Frölunda's Max Westergård took a fateful expulsion with just over three minutes left and Emil Pettersson scored the deciding 2-1 goal.
