Skellefteå is on its way to crash out of the Champions Hockey League, the tournament where the Västerbotten team played the final last season.
The Swedish championship team fired Robert Ohlsson last week after he made the comment:
I don't care about the supporters, in response to a question about the criticism directed at his team's poor form lately.
Instead, assistant coaches Pierre Johnsson and Andreas Falk took over the main responsibility.
They got a nightmare start in the first quarterfinal away against German Bremerhaven.
After barely 15 minutes of play, goalkeeper David Rautio had let in four pucks.
No turnaround came. Instead, the Germans could extend their lead to 5–0 in numerical inferiority in the final period.
The return match in Skellefteå will be played in a week – but the uphill battle is brutal for the Västerbotten team, which meets Malmö at home on Thursday when the SHL resumes.
Färjestad turned a 0–2 deficit into a 3–2 win away against Tappara in the first quarterfinal.
This gives the Karlstad team a good starting position for next week's return match at home against Rikard Grönborg's Finnish club.
Oskar Steen reduced the score before two goals in numerical superiority in the final period – through Joel Kellman and Axel Bergkvist – turned the match.
Växjö won a tight and goal-scarce match at home against Swiss Fribourg-Gotteron with 1–0.
Elias Rosén became the match's only goal scorer when he struck after 13.52 of the second period.
