Loss in the seventh and deciding quarter-final.
Then Challe Berglund was furious – about something that happened before the match.
– Elves, thunders the Leksandsträneren.
Leksand forced a seventh and completely decisive match in the quarter-final series against Frölunda, and unsurprisingly it would also be highly dramatic. Frölunda took the lead twice in the match, but Leksand managed to equalize quickly both times.
The anger after the loss
The match went to extra time where Finn Mikael Ruohomaa, with a past in Leksand, was able to decide. And afterwards there were upset faces in the Leksands camp, and especially at Challe Berglund. Not for anything that happened during the game, but before.
In an earlier quarter-final, Leksand’s Kalle Östman had collided with a referee, who fell to the ice. Contact with referees is not something that the SHL views favorably, and Östman was, as a result, suspended for three games. And after Leksand’s loss on Wednesday, Challe Berglund sent a big boot to the disciplinary committee and the situation room for the suspension of Östman.
“It’s elves”
In previous interviews, Berglund has called it “embarrassing”, and after Leksand missed the chance to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 1997, he directed new, massive criticism.
– I think the judges behaved well, but it’s elves in another place who are causing it, he says.
Leksand’s general manager Thomas Johansson believes, however, that the current regulations give the disciplinary board support for its assessment – but that the rules should be changed.
– In any case, you need to go through how it is written and see if you need to change the text. To give more room for accidents to actually occur out on the ice, he says.
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