"We're doing great, playing our hockey at home, it's fun to play," says Rögle center Fredrik Olofsson, who had an assist in the victory, to TV4 Play.
Everything went wrong for Växjö - who won last time - in the first period.
After just 32 seconds, goalkeeper Adam Åhman was injured and forced to leave the game, apparently with a muscle strain. Ludvig Persson came in instead.
He came under a lot of pressure. As the clock ticked towards the halfway point of the first period, the home team scored three times - in 76 seconds.
“Goes incredibly fast”
Felix Nilsson scored 1–0 after a quick give-and-go on the power play, Karson Kuhlman scored 2–0 directly after a faceoff and Linus Sandin was left unmarked in front of goal and was able to score 3–0.
"We have given ourselves a very tough start. Being down 0–3 here is not a good situation. Their goals come so incredibly fast," says Växjö coach Björn Hellkvist.
At the start of the second period, Rögle had a 4–0 lead after a commotion in the visitors' goal area, but the goal from Paul Ladue was disallowed after video review.
Instead, defender Mattias Göransson made it 4–0 at 7:54.
Match penalty after fight
Frustration was total at Växjö, who began to incur penalties, and fights broke out at regular intervals.
The home team's captain, Anton Bengtsson, and the visitors' Dennis Rasmussen started a real brawl right after a faceoff and both received match penalties.
The second period featured 64 penalty minutes.
In the third period, Växjö managed to get on the board with a power-play goal by Reid Gardiner with almost six minutes left.
Rögle's victory was their first home win in the series, and the Ängelholm side can secure its third trip to the SM final since 2021 - the previous two were lost - in Växjö on Thursday.
