Facts: The SC quarter-finals
+ Return matches, Friday: Luleå–HV71, Brynäs–Linköping. Saturday: Djurgården–Leksand, Modo–SDE.
+ Any third and decisive matches are played on Sunday where the home teams in the returns have their home ground again.
The lower-ranked teams started at home in the best-of-three quarterfinal game and had the chance to put pressure on the early favorites.
Leksand was the only team that took that chance.
There were 20 points between the sixth from Dalarna and the third Djurgården in the regular season, but it didn’t matter this evening.
After two scoreless periods, it narrowed in the third.
Wilma Johansson, Ida Karlsson and Ella Albinsson each scored a goal within 32 seconds.
— Wilma sets it, we get good energy and the goals just keep rolling in. This means a lot, especially as we have an away game now, says 3-0 scorer Albinsson to C More.
The series winner Luleå easily won away against eighth-ranked HV71 with 5–1. Already after 8.33, Luleå led 2–0. Josefine Persson became a two-goal scorer in Luleå, which is chasing its fifth straight SM gold.
Brynäs, the final losers of the last two years, won away over Linköping by a narrow 2–0. Basic series scoring queen Lara Stalder, 61 points (18 goals+43 assists), took advantage of a free position until 1–0 at the end of the second period. Hanna Thuvik made it 2-0 in an empty net, on a pass from Stalder.
However, Brynäs had center Alena Mills injured in the first period. She thundered into the sideline with her head first, tackled by Emilie Kruse Johansen, who received a match penalty.
Series four Modo won away over SDE with 4–0 after Jennifer Wakefield scored the first goal and was noted for assist points on the two subsequent goals.