Lulia is the team that refuses to lie down and die.
Now they forced a seventh game against series winners Växjö on Tuesday.
Is another snowboarding prodigy coming in the quarter-finals?
I find it difficult to call it anything else if Luleå persists.
Växjö are still the favorites and they have the decision in their hands at Vida Arena.
But if Luleå survives that series in the quarterfinals, they will make SHL history.
A grassroots team that has never made it to the SM semi-finals.
It wasn’t even close.
I predicted that this would end 4-0 in matches and Växjö were huge favorites after Luleå’s three tough Round of 16 matches against Oskarshamn, with the latter two going into extra time as if they were sucking extra juice from the northern bottoms. .
I felt the rush even more when Växjö first won a chaotic home game 7-2 and then went up to Luleå winning 3-2 after extra time.
At that time it was 3-1 in matches and I expected Smålands to score the ball of the match in Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg’s Växjö.
Four days later the score was 3-3.
Goalkeeper Joel Lasenante robbed Jurgen Johnson’s side of reaching the semi-finals last Friday (1-0) and Sunday’s Lulea won fairly.
Joel Lasenante was good, but he didn’t have to get on his head like last time.
No, I can’t help but bow to this lolio.
Most people love it when an underdog stumbles, but even going 3-3 in games is close to an achievement.
The Lulea starter has had three bouts in the playoffs and logged plenty of ice time.
Mostly fullback Oscar Engsund, who plays almost half the games and seems nowhere near a reserve tank.
It was the ninth match in thirteen days and should have been red for a long time.
Now it’s a drama to the end.
It looks completely open now
Växjö have in their baggage that they are the only ones who have lost against a team of eights, since the introduction of the playing format for the 2013-14 season.
Until then as a series winner.
It was Malmö who became historic at the time, but they finished eighth in the series and “only” eighteen points behind Småland in the regular season.
Lulea was ten points behind, with a lead of 31 points.
Yes, the end of this series seems wide open now.
Växjö lost two match points, even though he was dreaming of starting this match.
Just under four minutes later, defender Lukas Bengtsson wedged himself between the blue-robed Luleå players and opened up the entire area for Växjö.
He found Mika Koivisto to the left of the box and his pass to Martin Lundberg finally found its way and Lundberg was able to shove the puck into the empty box.
But just two minutes later, Lulea’s Ole Nicopeteri scored, only to lose the puck to Emile Larme.
But there, defender Philippe Peruchta snuck into the left wing and managed to loft the ball into the empty net.
And in the middle of the opening period, Lulea had to play five on three.
This was what was required of the Norrbottings, who had never scored against Växjö in numerical superiority before.
It took time, but with five seconds left in the five-on-three match, Johani Tervenen managed to make it 2-1 from a position in the center of the castle.
Växjö feels unusually tame
And that was the end of the goal kick.
Växjö tried and tried, but Luleå completely shut them out for the rest of the match.
The third period is telling, as Växjö didn’t hit a single shot against Lassinantti.
Not even when Växjö got off the goalkeeper and played six-on-five at the end.
The shots were 4-0 in that period and I don’t know if I’m part of a more bizarre shot statistic.
No, the Smålanders have felt extraordinarily tame in these last two games, feeling like they’re up against a group of grizzly bears just awakened from the ice, suitably angry and starving.
If that’s enough all the way?
We’ll know on Tuesday.