After losing to Frölunda HC on Saturday, Skellefteå AIK had the opportunity to redeem themselves at home when bottom club Örebro HK visited on Thursday night.
But in the first period there was no sign of revenge from the black-clad home side, who played mostly defensively against an intense Örebro. Thanks to their intensity, the visitors scored twice without reply in the first period.
At that point, things looked bleak for AIK, but when the puck dropped in the second period, the crowd witnessed a total transformation as the home team increased the tempo to a level that Örebro couldn't match. AIK reduced the deficit when Oscar Lindberg scored his eleventh goal of the season after a scramble in the Örebro goal area.
Trailing by a goal, AIK started the third period with the same tempo, which quickly led to an equalizer. Elias Salomonsson scored his first SHL goal of the season with a masked shot from the blue line.
AIK continued to push for goals, but just couldn't find the back of the net, despite 39 shots on goal. Örebro won the game after a shootout.
– The last 40 minutes were fantastic, but the first 20 minutes were disastrous. We create chances to win, but we lost the game in the first period. We made such simple mistakes, says coach Max Lindholm and continues:
– We knew Örebro would be aggressive because they're playing with their backs against the wall, so we knew it would be intense out there and we didn't handle it well.
Does it make the loss even more bitter when you play 40 good minutes and still lose?
– Yeah, it does. If we had played well in the first 20 minutes today, we would have won the game.
On Thursday night, Färjestad BK and Linköping HC both lost - two teams that AIK are competing against at the top of the league. The points dropped against Örebro mean that AIK missed the chance to close the gap to the top teams.
– We must now win matches and chase points to secure a place in the top six, especially against Växjö and Färjestad, who we want to overtake, Max concludes.
Match facts
Skellefteå AIK – Örebro HK 2–3 after penalty shoot.-out (0–2, 1–0, 1–0, 0–0, 0–1)
Goals: 0–1 (07.05) Samuel Johannesson (Lekkerimäki, Rissanen), 0–2 (14.16) Elias Ekström (Mastomäki, Eklind), 1–2 (24.09) Oscar Lindberg (A. Johnson, M. Forsfjäll), 2–2 (41.19) Elias Salomonsson (Lundberg, Lindberg), 2–3 (65.00) Samuel Johannesson
Shots: 39–17 (9–8, 16–3, 11–6, 2–0)