SHL Playoffs: Lulea avoid clean sweep with narrow victory over Skelleftea

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/skelleftea/8jdWygW7/"]Skelleftea[/a]'s winning goal in the fourth period of overtime in game one looked like [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/lulea/0QhOwF1e/"]Lulea[/a]'s only chance to upset the number-one seeds in this series, as they went down 5-0 away and 3-1 back on home ice in the next two meetings.[/p][p]But hopes were renewed midway through the first period this time, after [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/johansson-pontus/Or8s7TPe/"]Pontus Johansson[/a] was penalised for holding the stick, [b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/hedqvist-isac/tjQztRYE/"]Isac Hedqvist[/a] did well to maintain possession by knocking the puck back to [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/shinnimin-brendan/tEJOBPzP/"]Brendan Shinnimin[/a] to strike home on the powerplay.[/b][/p][p]However, Lulea failed to take advantage of further powerplays either side of the 20-minute mark, and that looked critical 14 minutes into period two, [b]when [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/aagaard-mikkel/v57qjaw9/"]Mikkel Aagaard[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/lindberg-oscar/IBpaSV2T/"]Oscar Lindberg[/a] stretched the home defence before teeing up [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/lundberg-arvid/rycFwaF6/"]Arvid Lundberg[/a] to score the equaliser.[/b][/p][p]Lulea had other ideas, though, and were back in front four minutes on when [b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/brome-mathias/CYL8qow3/"]Mathias Brome[/a] picked out an unguarded [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/sellgren-jesper/MVLR3dJL/"]Jesper Sellgren[/a], who had time to rifle a second goal for the hosts past [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/soderstrom-linus/W2QwEFRe/"]Linus Soderstrom[/a].[/b][/p][embed guid="cb4b8963-a188-4d10-a83b-50c8cccfd90f" url="https://x.com/SHLse/status/2043761599647810040" social-type="twitter" /][p]And that gave the home side all the momentum coming out to start the third period, [b]and it was that man Shinnimin - again receiving an assist from Hedqvist - who used it to full effect after just 40 seconds to score his second and open a two-goal lead.[/b][/p][p]Lulea were made to sweat for the rest of the period, as [b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/laaksonen-oskari/EyuZPdSS/"]Oskar Vuollet[/a] pulled a goal back less than two minutes later[/b], and with four minutes to play, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/grahn-viktor/hnUwYDvM/"]Viktor Grahn[/a] thought he had sent the game to overtime, only to see his goal disallowed for impeding goaltender [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/ward-matteus/nFQzIIs1/"]Matteus Ward[/a].[/p][p]But the Norrbotten County club held on to win [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/hockey/lulea-0QhOwF1e/skelleftea-8jdWygW7/?mid=A1Bt6VaB"]3-2[/a] and take the series to game five, which takes place back in Skelleftea on Wednesday 15th.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/hockey/lulea-0QhOwF1e/skelleftea-8jdWygW7/?mid=A1Bt6VaB"]Follow the SHL playoffs on Flashscore.[/a][/b][/p]