Leksand was a team with weak self-confidence after seven straight losses – and in all games only scored one goal ahead.
At home against Luleå, it also only took 28 seconds before the visitors took the lead. Norrbottingarna won a draw in the offensive zone and Frédéric Allard scored 1-0 from the cross.
Then came 2-0 at the beginning of the second period.
Here and there: Lead-heavy situation for Leksand.
But the evening would end with a blue-and-white victory rush that almost caused the roof to lift at Tegera Arena.
Leksand turned 0-2 into 3-2 and produced some dazzling strikes, for example when Justin Kloos, Marek Hrivik and Max Veronneau combined to make it 2-2.
“What the hell is the time?”
An important moment was when Peter Cehlarik made it 3-2 during a four-minute long numerical disadvantage where Lucas Elvenes served 2+2 for high stick. Pontus Andreasson managed to equalize shortly afterwards to make it 3-3 in the power play, with only ten seconds left in the second period.
The end of the third period was just as dramatic, where Leksand was on the attack in the closing seconds of the match. After a messy situation, Max Veronneau was able to hit a rebound to make it 4-3 and the curse was broken.
– Right then and there I thought “what the hell is the clock on?”, but obviously we had a few seconds left. We really needed this after seven upsets or whatever the saying sounds like, says coach Charles “Challe” Berglund.
Earlier in the game, at the end of period two, Luleå’s Jack Connolly was hit in the eye by a stick, under the visor, and had to be helped off the ice while bleeding profusely.