The Czech goalkeeper was injured after just 14 minutes of play. Instead, Daniel Marmenlind stepped in and played a great game.
It was a bloody mess. It's tough as a goalkeeper to be substituted in. It wasn't the most fun start either, letting in a goal in a power play almost immediately. But maybe that's what was needed, says Marmenlind to TV4 Play.
He became a big matchwinner together with Henrik Haapala, who scored the deciding goal after 5.42 of overtime.
Dream start
Malmö defeated Rögle in the final round on Tuesday after overtime and took the last playoff spot thanks to that.
Strengthened by that, the team got a dream start when Axel Sundberg scored 1–0 in power play after just 4.23. Then came the situation where Leon Bristedt collided with Malmö goalkeeper Marek Langhamer, who was forced to leave after getting Rögle player's left knee in the head.
I do everything to avoid it, I try to spin away from the situation, but it hits the head. Unfortunate, but hockey is a sport where you get injured sometimes, says Bristedt to TV4 Play.
Admitted the mistake
Bristedt avoided a penalty. Incorrectly, admitted referee Mikael Sjöqvist in TV4:
It's clearly a penalty, goalie interference. We don't see that it's a knee that hits.
Instead, Bristedt became a goal scorer a few minutes later when he scored 1–1 in numerical superiority. Then only 32 seconds of the first period remained.
It was an intense derby battle with a lot of emotions and a lot of skirmishes after the whistle.
Rögle got both team captain Anton Bengtsson and defenseman Ludvig Claesson injured.
A larger group of Malmö FF players followed the match from the stands. MFF is gearing up for the semifinal match against IFK Göteborg in the Swedish Cup on Sunday.
They got to cheer on a Redhawks victory.
Now Malmö can decide in the return match on Saturday in Ängelholm. The eighth-final is played in best of three matches.
