Of course, it's nice to go on Christmas vacation with three straight wins. Right now, it's a good feeling, but we can play better and know what we can work on, says Skellefteå's star center Pär Lindholm.
He's better than ever right now, and even when the team has struggled at times this fall, Lindholm has continued to maintain a high level.
But it wasn't much that worked in Skellefteå this evening. The media cube hung black and silent in the ceiling, and it took a while before either team came close to their level before the national team break.
The start was pretty rusty from both teams. What we take with us is how we sacrifice ourselves for each other, says Pontus Petterström, assistant coach in Skellefteå.
Four on JVM
The home team lacked, among others, four JVM players and had borrowed in Södertälje back Viktor Grahn as a replacement on the defense. Grahn got a lot of playing time and handled the transition to SHL well. Even Timrå had people missing, including Didrik Strömberg and Anton Wedin.
It was still Timrå that started best and created a few sharp chances against an initially shaky home defense.
But then there's Skellefteå's Pär Lindholm.
After 12.04 in the opening period, he stretched out his long stick and managed to steer a shot pass from defenseman Luke Witkowski into the net behind Timrå goalkeeper Tim Juel.
After the goal, it was more and more about Skellefteå.
Luke lays it on goal and I managed to get a little height on it. Nice to give the team such a good start to the match, says the goal scorer, who was also involved in the 2-0 goal in the middle period.
Strange goal
It was one of the stranger goals you've seen.
Skellefteå's Andreas Johnson got down to the boards first and thus prevented an icing. Then he somehow managed to get the puck almost up to the ceiling before it fell down into the mess in front of the goal. There were Pär Lindholm, Timrå's Oliver Kapanen, and goalkeeper Tim Juel. Juel and Kapanen both stretched to reach the puck, Kapanen reached highest, but when he tried to hit it away, it ended up in his own goal instead.
Skellefteå gradually got their defense in order and in the end, they were put under pressure by a chasing Timrå. But despite the team being full of goal-scoring players, Medelpadslaget was shut out this time.
