HV71 received a match penalty – and Modo was able to pull away and decide the match.
Then Niklas Wikegård raged.
“Unfortunately, there is a tendency in hockey to reinforce, roll and stay,” says the expert.
It was two teams that started the season tentatively that met in Örnsköldsvik on Tuesday evening. However, Modo got off to a dream start against HV71 and were in a 2-0 lead when the first period signal went off. And it would be much worse for HV71 at the start of the second period.
Wikegård’s anger
Five minutes into it, the center Tommi Tikka went on his second match penalty of the season, when he lowered his opponent with a tackle on Josh Dickinson’s head. Dickinson appeared to be in considerable pain, but later, with no apparent problem at all, was able to continue playing. For HV71, the match penalty, and the subsequent five-minute long numerical disadvantage, was fatal.
They did hold off for almost four minutes, but then Modo was able to score his third goal of the evening, and before HV got five players on the ice, they had also made it 4-0. And not everyone agreed with the judges about the decision, which thus became completely match-deciding. Niklas Wikegård, for example, did not mean at all that it was a tackle.
– It’s a run-in, not a tackle, he says on TV4.
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“A tendency…”
Wikegård believes that it was not at all a deliberate tackle or lowering, but rather more of a collision.
– He goes in front of the Mod player, it’s not like he tackles him directly, he steps in front and manages to hit him in the face and Dickinson collapses as if he’s turned off the power completely, I think that looks much worse than what it is, he says.
The expert also put his foot down heavily against that type of situation – where he believes that it is a pure reinforcement from the player, in this case Dickinson, who was soon back on his feet.
– We also see that in the player who is up and is as fresh as possible but was completely knocked out less than 30 seconds ago. Unfortunately, there is a tendency in hockey to reinforce, roll and stay, making it difficult for the referees all the time. It’s a drive-in and touch! If it’s a tackle, you come in from the side with speed, he says.
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