Rögle took the first victory in six matches – won the anxiety meeting

Rögle BK was in a gloomy suite to say the least before Saturday’s anxiety meeting with HV71 in Husqvarna Garden. The Ängelholm team had six consecutive losses and was last in the table. Even the opponent for the day, HV71, was in a precarious position in terms of qualification.

Then Rögle broke the suite.

After eleven minutes in the first period, Kevin Ekeståhl-Jonsson broke the deadlock. The Röglebacken went ahead with a shot from the blue line, which via Hugo Alnefelt found its way into the back of the net to make it 1-0 Rögle.

Ekeståhl-Jonsson also had a key role in Rögle’s 2-0 goal, which came ten minutes into the second period. After a messy situation, Alnefelt lay on the ice and swam, with a bunch of HV and Rögle players in front of him. When the puck found its way to Ekeståhl-Jonsson in the second wave, he showed great understanding of the game. Instead of shooting, the 1-0 shooter passed sideways to Filip Johansson, who was able to score 2-0 with a clear view.

HV71 came back

At the end of the second period, André Pettersson responded to the sting in the third period most recently against Malmö, when he scored a 1-2 reduction with a minute left in the second period.

Before the end of the period, HV71 was also close to an equaliser, but Tanner Kero failed to get the puck into the goal – but hit the post.

When it felt like HV71 was heading into the match and had a sense of an equaliser, Rögle instead scored 3-1. Jacob Pettersson had a great opportunity, nicely played by Albin Sundsvik. The defender made no mistakes but safely placed the puck high behind Alsenfelt.

But the HV71 would come back. With three minutes and 23 seconds left in the game, the home team got a 2-3 reduction – and with 41 seconds left, Sean Day got the 3-3 receipt to take the game to extra time.

Nasty pictures before the decision

However, the extension started in the worst possible way for HV71, when Josh Dickinson drove into Hugo Alnefelt. It got so bad that Alnefelt had to stop the game, leaving the ice visibly groggy. Frederik Dichow had to step in and replace.

When the extension was then three minutes and 44 seconds old, the decision came. Felix Nilsson scored a 4-3 goal and decided the match for Rögle.

Rögle’s dismal losing streak is thus over, even if the jumbo place in the table remains. At the same time, the problems are growing for HV71, who suffered their second straight loss and remain in the qualification spot.