Luleå is chasing the club's seventh consecutive national championship gold and was, with a 2-0 lead before the final period, well on its way to victory in the first home final against Frölunda.
But then everything went against Luleå.
Frölunda's Felizia Wikner-Zienkiewicz and Emilia Vesa – who equalized with 1:43 remaining – saw to it that the match went to overtime.
There, Luleå was forced to substitute goalkeeper star Sara Grahn, after it appeared on TV images that she received Michelle Karvinen's knee to the head after a breakaway.
Terribly unlucky. I really hope she's okay. It was an unfortunate situation, says Karvinen to SVT.
Into the home goal came an unwarmed-up Frida Axell and just 56 seconds later, Karvinen – previously in Luleå – scored the winner for Frölunda.
Incredibly important for us. We knew it wouldn't be easy to win a match here, incredibly good start for us, says Karvinen to SVT.
The teams meet again in Luleå on Friday and then await two straight matches in Gothenburg and Scandinavium.
There, Frölunda has now secured the chance to achieve three wins – and secure a historic first national championship gold in front of their home crowd.
We have the mentality to go all the way, says Karvinen.
