Lian Bichsel decided the second SC final with barely ten minutes left to play. Rögle thus leveled the final series against Skellefteå AIK at 1–1 in matches.
Here are Gustav Lundblad’s five impressions from the match.
Skellefteå AIK–Rögle BK 0–1
(0–0, 0–0, 0–1)
Third period:
0–1, 10:30, Lian Bichsel (Rodrigo Abols)
Shot: 27–22 (5–9, 10–6, 12–7)
Expulsions: Skellefteå: 2 x 2 min. Rögle: 2 x 2 min.
Public: 5801
1. Bichsel’s sudden decision
“Are we headed for sudden death?”, I wrote in the document that forms the basis of this article, ten minutes into the third period.
In that situation, the big scoring chances had been absent for a while, the game had become more even and both teams had become more careless in the game with the puck.
Both Rögle and Skellefteå had just wasted an excellent counter-attacking opportunity.
Suddenly, Adam Tambellini got a puck that AIK owned at their own blue line. He shot, but goalkeeper Linus Lindström saved. In the next sequence, the home team lost the puck at their own blue line again, the long-legged Rodrigo Abols got hold of the puck, passed Lian Bichsel – who suddenly pulled away with a shot and sent in his first goal in the SC playoffs.
After 111 minutes of play in the final series, Skellefteå’s clean sheet was broken.
The rest of the match?
Short summary: Rögle dominated the first 16 minutes of the first period, Skellefteå the first twelve minutes of the second period and the first seven minutes of the third period. After the goal, RBK defended the lead as safely as possible.
1–0 in the match, 1–1 in matches.
2. Swiss perfection
During the regular season, I noticed that some Rögle supporters were often annoyed at Lian Bichsel’s level.
I myself experienced that he periodically made good matches, but that he was uneven in his level and often took unnecessary sending offs. It felt like he never really reached his great potential over time.
In the playoffs, the Swiss has transformed, become safe as a bank, reliable as a clock.
He has been sent off twice in twelve playoff games – in the last 22 regular season games he was sent off twelve times.
He neutralizes all opponents in this playoff and once he scored his goal, he was put on the ice almost all the time for the rest of the game, pushed AIK players away, twisted the puck in his own zone, was an MVP with a total of 24:15 minutes in ice age.
Lian Bichsel in the SM final 2024 is a delicious, well-balanced, Swiss chocolate, with which the Rögle supporters can celebrate a SM final receipt.
3. Goalkeepers and central zone
We fly down the SM final series just over 100 miles.
Southward, from minus four degrees in Skellefteå, to two degrees in an almost equally winter-cold Ängelholm.
We do it with only two goals conceded in 120 minutes of play.
The final series has been characterized by two things:
Closed middle zones.
Skilled goalkeepers.
The games have been relatively low-key, the teams have dominated different parts of the games, at times it has been on fire, but most of all, that game has been disciplined, sacrificial, defensively zealous rather than offensively meticulous.
The home team’s reliable cage keeper Linus Söderström was finally forced to capitulate and today it was Christoffer Rifalk’s turn to keep a clean sheet.
The Rögle goalkeeper continues his improbable streak of 18 – EIGHTEEN – consecutive games with more than a 90 save percentage.
4. More notes
1–1 i matcher, 0–2 i powerplay.
In shots in Rögle’s power play, that is.
The team got a chance today and it led to absolutely nothing, more than a dangerous Skellefteå counterattack.
Exactly the same as in the PP chance you got in match 1.
There, Rögle has great potential for improvement going forward.
Additional notes?
• Rodrigo Abols was powerful with his tremendous range and puck steals in this game – of course he was also the one who played Bichsel to the goal.
• Daniel Zaar’s tackle on Jonathan Pudas is the big media topic of conversation tonight. Sad of course to hear about the feared head injury to Pudas, who may not return to action. I myself don’t have the hockey skills to judge whether the verdict, not to punish Zaar, was right or wrong – but based on the mixed reactions, I can read that it was at least not a clear-cut decision, but rather a matter of judgement.
• Lian Bichsel in all glory – the sweatiest defensive effort of the evening was probably AIK’s Elias Salomonsson, when he was the last man to twist the puck from Abols in a four-on-one situation for Rögle and then disturbed Adam Engström enough when he was about to shoot in dangerous position on the loose second puck.
• The aftermath of Zaar’s tackle and some gurgling at the end of the first period, made this match a little more edgy and heated than the first final. Even this match, however, was relatively kind and emotionally cold, compared to several of Rögle’s matches against Färjestad and Växjö. We see a well-combed finals series so far, with only 16 suspension minutes awarded in two games.
5. It could have gone either way
Two games in Västerbotten, two goals, 1–1.
So even, so even.
Small xG advantage for Rögle in match 1, small xG advantage for Skellefteå in match 2.
These first two games could both have ended with just about any winners.
It is 1–1, but it could have been 2–0 in matches to Rögle and it could have been 2–0 in matches to AIK.
So how will the next two meetings in the Catena Arena be?
Equally even?
Or can Rögle channel the hockey fever in north-west Scania, the home pressure in the hall, to connect a grip on the SM gold on home ground?
Perhaps via a better power play on home ice.
In any case, that is the big question ahead of Thursday’s third final match.
At least we now know one thing that we didn’t know a few hours ago:
If Rögle wins their three games in the Catena Arena, they will take the gold – regardless of what happens in Norrland.
Photo: Bildbyrån
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