Rögle lost at home against Örebro on Thursday evening – despite comeback stars Simon Ryfors and Dennis Everberg breaking longer goal droughts.
When Rögle was back in action after the national team break, most things looked good.
For 20 minutes.
The first period belonged to the home team in front of 5563 spectators in the Catena Arena.
Simon Ryfors, who has not scored in his last 15 games played (since November 30), was back from his facial injury – and started the game by thundering 1-0 into the roof.
The striker was hot throughout the match, perhaps the home team’s best player.
Rögle played aggressively and received bottom competitor Örebro with warm napkins – the lead was fair.
Before the match, Rögle and Örebro were the two teams in the SHL that scored the lowest number of goals since the turn of the year.
Thus, the situation was perhaps doomed to be tough for the team that ended up at a disadvantage.
But Örebro had a joker when they were behind in the middle period.
During a couple of unfortunate Rögle minutes, Jonathan Lekkerimäki scored two nice goals, the first on a sharp direct shot and the second after with a good shot into the roof of the net after a play from his own zone (Philip Holm) and passive Rögle defense.
Örebro dominated the period and it was 2-1 to the guests before the final period.
Rögle forced. In two Powerplays, they established great pressure against the Örebro box – without getting any closer to a reduction than a Dennis Everberg shot from close range after the comeback striker received the puck from Ryfors.
However, Everberg, just like Ryfors, would score his first goal of the year.
After Rögle survived two minutes of play in three against five, Roger Hansson took a timeout and goalkeeper Christoffer Rifalk was taken out.
RBK established pressure, Ryfors shot and on the return Everberg sent in 2-3 with just over a minute left to play. It was the star’s first goal since December 19, after eleven goalless games.
The final minute was dramatic.
Rögle fired at away goalkeeper Jhonas Enroth and in the final seconds it was chaotic in front of the Örebro goal – but the visitors persevered and took all three points in Ängelholm.
Even though Rögle won the shootout 30–21.
Rögle has thus only won two of the last nine games. The loss was the fourth in a row at home and in the table the distance to HV71 in the negative qualifying place is reduced to five points after that team’s win against Luleå.
With ten rounds left in the SHL, Rögle is still in the round of 16, now on the same points as MoDo (victory today against Oskarshamn) closest to the finish line.
Malmö, who got a point from the away match against Timrå, are two points behind.
In the third period, an unpleasant situation occurred when Örebro’s Emil Larsson, through an unfortunate accident, got Ryfor’s skate over his wrist. Larsson went straight out to the dressing room with what appeared to be an injury. After the match, Örebro announces via Twitter that Larsson “according to the circumstances (is) okay” and that he will “be examined further in the next few days”.
Bottom of the SHL table:
9. Örebro, 56p.
10. Rögle, 53p.
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11. MoDo, 53p.
12. Malmö, 51p.
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13. HV71, 48p.
14. Oskarshamn, 32p.
Photo: Bildbyrån
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