For new-age coach Johan Lindbom, the club director who stepped down in the booth again, it was the second straight loss.
He hasn’t seen his team score either. The SHL jumbo has not done that in 190 minutes and 18 seconds.
New-timer Nick Shore, who tried to land an NHL spot in Carolina but failed, was back in HV71 after making a splash at the end of last season. In addition, back star Oliwer Kaski made his first game of the season after injury.
Promising start
An injection at least initially when HV71 started positively in Johan Lindbom’s second game after the coach change.
Despite the spirited start, the team had difficulty creating goal chances and Timrå was the closest to a goal in the first period with full back Olli Juolevi’s clear post hit.
The home team’s goalkeeper Jakob Johansson was forced to stop the match after he collided with the visitors’ Joonas Nättinen, pushed in by Juolevi, and received a blow to the head.
HV also started well in the second period – but then when team captain Anton Lander broke his twelve-game goal drought and scored 1-0 after 5.40, the home team took over completely.
“More modes than ever before”
Chainmate Filip Hållander did not want to be worse and also scored the first goal of the season to make it 2–0.
It was just as anticipated for him and both cheered big after their goals.
“We’re in the 13th game and it feels like I’ve had more opportunities than ever,” Hållander tells TV4 Play.
“It was a bit tentative in the first and the beginning of the second, but when we scored the first goal there was a little life in the booth,” he describes.
It could have been more. Timrå created a number of chances and had another post shot through Jonathan Dahlén.
— We lost focus in the defensive game in the second period. There will be mistakes after mistakes, says Mattias Tedenby to TV4 Play.
When then Jonathan Dahlén scored 3-0 after just over seven minutes of the third period, HV71 was, if not before, a beaten team.