When Frölunda finished the regular season, the 17-year-old forward Ivar Stenberg scored his first SHL goal in his career.
Now he knows how it feels to score a goal in a playoff final as well. In the third period – shortly after goalkeeper Lasse Johansson made a superb save – of the first quarterfinal against Timrå, the talent scored the 2–2 goal in an open net via the kitchen route.
The goal made the fully packed Scandinavium – 12,044 spectators – erupt. However, the goal was not enough to force overtime or lay the foundation for a winning goal.
With 2.12 minutes left to play in the match, Sebastian Hartmann scored the decisive 3–2 goal. Shortly afterwards, Oliver Kapanen sealed the victory to 4–2 in an empty net after Frölunda had pulled the goalkeeper in pursuit of an equalizer.
Frölunda is a strong home team, it's even matches with small margins. It's incredibly nice that we snatched the first win, says Hartmann to TV4 Play.
Frölunda was never in the lead in the match, but coach Roger Rönnberg believes that his team was better than the visitors.
We create a bit more, I think we drive the game in a good way. There's one thing I'm not so pleased with. It's how we look in front of Tim Juel (Timrå's goalkeeper). There, we're far too soft. We let him see too many shots. We need to increase the pressure significantly in front of the goal, says Rönnberg.
Sunday's match will also be played in Gothenburg.
