Updated 17.43 | Published on 17.36
The SHL’s biggest crisis team is back on the winning track after a 5-2 rout against Oscarshamn.
Returning Nick Shore became grand champion for HV71 in the Smålands derbyt.
– This was a very important win for us, says Shor on TV4 Play.
There will likely be an occasional sigh of relief in Jönköping on Saturday evening.
After a change of coach, five straight defeats and more than 200 minutes without scoring, HV71 emerged from a deep crisis.
Nick Shore stepped up in his second game of the fall in an HV71 jersey and made the game a 3-2 decider with a cannonball shot on the power play.
-We played very well today over 60 minutes. It would have been nice to score one on the powerplay. “We really wanted to record there,” says Shore.
Victor Lodin was sent off for tripping HV71 goalkeeper Johnny Ortio, a decision the IKO camp does not seem to be happy with.
Weak start
However, things got off to a bad start for HV71.
Henrik Borgström dribbled at the blue line and Viktor Lodin grabbed the puck. Lodin set off with the goalkeeper, and made no mistake as he made it 1-0 for Oscarshamn with a beautiful move, 7.30 minutes into the first half.
– He (Borgstrom) takes a huge amount of water over his head. “It was frankly poorly done,” says expert Niklas Wickegaard in the TV4 Play episode.
But HV71 would equalize the scores a few minutes before the end of the first half. Oskar Stål-Lyrenäs scored the redemption goal and thus broke the team’s drought in the 204th (!) minute of goals.
Still huge
Even in the second half, the team continued. Patrik Karlqvist entered a free position and made it 2-1, but Viktor Sjoholm equalized in the final phase of the period.
Nick Shore’s decision came early in the third period and André Petersson and Simon Önerud both scored into an empty net and HV71 won 5–2.
The win means HV71, still huge, has reached 13 points – the same number as Oscarshamn.
“Hopefully we can build on this until next week,” says Shor.