It was one of those matches that all involved had a hard time summarizing.
It swung back and forth, both in terms of gameplay and on the scoreboard.
The players barely knew what they had been through, and the coaches were both pleased and dissatisfied.
In literary terms, one might say that it hardly concerned any exact poetic hockey prose – but indeed it was, forgive me Roger Rönnberg, entertaining ("Fun that the audience is happy, but I haven't paid to see the match; I get paid to optimize my team").
Frölunda's team captain Max Friberg still tried to explain how it went when coach Rönnberg's and his team defeated Färjestad after overtime. It went like that.
It's hard to get a grip on… We have strong periods, they have strong periods. Then we get a result. It's a common scenario between us.
Six in a row
Friberg could have added that it was a common result. With the win, Frölunda is up to six straight SHL wins against Färjestad – from the seventh quarterfinal in 2023 via four regular season victories last season.
It's clear that it's a strength to find ways to win matches, but it feels like everyone has been goal-scorers. We have to put in everything we have to even have a chance to win, he says.
Frölunda went up 2–0 via two power-play goals in the first period, where the guests had nine minutes of numerical superiority. Färjestad's Marian Studenic drew a match penalty when he elbowed Nicklas Lasu, who could not continue playing.
Directly in the third period, Friberg set it to 3–1, and then most things spoke in favor of Frölunda.
"Lousy finish"
Then Färjestad got going properly, equalized via two goals in 41 seconds, and took the lead when Per Åslund set his second goal for the evening to 4–3.
With 15 seconds left of regular time, Filip Cederqvist equalized to 4–4 behind a generous Damian Clara in Färjestad's goal, and when the home team drew another penalty, Dominik Egli could decide in overtime.
Färjestad's coach Tomas Mitell didn't know which leg to stand on:
You're colored by the result. We do a lot of good things against Frölunda, which is a good team, but we manage to mess it up. A lousy finish. I'm pleased with some parts, but there are things to clean up, he says.
