Facts: SM final series
Match 1: Växjö–Skellefteå 3–2 after extra time.
Match 2: Skellefteå–Växjö 0–1.
Match 3: Växjö–Skellefteå 2–3 e exl.
Match 4: Skellefteå–Växjö 1–4.
Match 5, Monday 24/4: Växjö–Skellefteå.
Ev match 6, Thursday 27/4: Skellefteå–Växjö.
Possible match 7, Saturday 29/4: Växjö–Skellefteå.
“Last time we went out to defend something and today we chased the next goal all the time,” explained comeback team captain Erik Josefsson to C More.
Joel Kellman was the two-goal scorer and defenders Keegan Lowe and Hardy Häman Aktell fixed Växjö’s goal celebration.
Växjö took a 3-1 lead in the final series and can decide at home in Vida arena on Monday evening. In that case, the club’s fourth SM gold, of which the third with Skellefteå as the final opponent.
Skellefteå made it into the final series by taking their first win most recently away from home in Växjö, 3–2 after extra time.
Bad final statistics
Now the team would try to equalize to avoid Småland’s match ball on Monday.
But Skellefteå has poor statistics and now suffered its tenth straight loss in the SC final context at home.
The most recent match in Skellefteå was won by a repressed Växjö 1–0 despite only having eleven shots on goal.
Now coach Jörgen Jönsson had ordered a better offensive.
After one period, Växjö led 2–0 and had shot more shots (15–4 to Växjö) than in the second final match.
Slopes painted
It was the backs who fixed the goals.
Keegan Lowe scored 1-0 in the home goalkeeper Linus Söderström’s pick-hand cross after 11.07 and it was barely two minutes before it narrowed again.
Skellefteå-born Hardy Häman Aktell thundered in 2-0 in the same cross.
— I got a good hit on it. It fits incredibly well, he told C More.
About the flash opening he said:
— I think we have started quite badly in all matches, but we have changed a few things in our forechecking.
Häman Aktell was sent off at the end of the first period and Skellefteå started the second with a numerical advantage and put a lot of pressure on.
It continued after the expulsion and Oscar Möller got a half-open goal, but missed the backhand shot.
Flashing counterattack
Instead, Växjö countered in a flash and Joel Kellman made it 3-0 in a free position, played by Hugo Gustafsson.
The home team had a hard time, had to play a lot in their own zone – but in the end hope returned in a sold-out home arena, 5,801 spectators.
Oscar Möller got a half-open goal again in numerical superiority after a brilliant pass from Rickard Hugg – and did not miss a second time.
But at the start of the third period, Joel Kellman extinguished the home hopes with his second goal of the afternoon.
In numerical superiority, he spot-kicked 4-1 past an obscured Linus Söderström.
It was Växjö’s first goal in numerical superiority against Skellefteå this season – on the 23rd attempt in the teams’ eighth meeting.