Frölunda Gothenburg have made it to the Final Four of the Champions Hockey League, but they faced a real test against IFK Helsinki. It took a goal by Robin Figren in the last minute of play to decide the quarter-final series in their favour.
by Efraim Larsson
GOTHENBURG – It looked like the series was headed to overtime, but Robin Figren had other ideas. In a wild and crazy third period in which both Frölunda Gothenberg and IFK Helsinki had already taken the aggregate lead only to have it tied up again, there was still one more goal to be scored. The 26-year-old right winger had scored one goal early in the period and he wasn't done – with the teams skating 4-on-4 he netted the series-winning goal with just 50 seconds remaining in regulation time. The win sends Frölunda into the CHL semi-finals and also ends a four-game losing skid overall.
After four consecutive losses before this game, what are your first thoughts about bouncing back with a win?
I don’t think there is anyone in this world that wants to lose in something – at least I’m not one of them, so it feels pretty darn good right now. We’ve played pretty solid and good the last couple of games but haven’t had the bounces on our side, which makes this victory feel even better. It’s awesome that we’re top four in the CHL!
What do you think were the biggest differences between the first and second games against HIFK?
We were a bit more “there” today and worked a bit harder, but if you look at the whole series it’s two really good and competent teams that faced each other here. I think that HIFK is a highly skilled team and they showed us why they have the highest shot efficiency in the league when they took advantage of their scoring chances. The series was super tight and they (HIFK) were hanging in there all game long today, so huge credit to them. They played really well.
The third period was a bit of a rollercoaster with goals coming all the time, it felt like.
Yeah, the word “rollercoaster” really describes it and we had too many turnovers, maybe, but on the other hand I think it indicated we were mentally strong enough to respond when they tied it up all the time. I think we showed a lot of patience, strength and character which we will carry on into our upcoming adventures.
We got to see two goals from your stick today and the second one decided the series in your favour. How would you describe the second goal?
Haha, what can I say? I think it was a great goal. Mattias (Janmark) is a little bit known for his skill of taking control of the puck and can turn games around because of that, so you have to hang in there and follow up in the attack, which was mostly what I tried to do, and we managed to get a little give-and-go situation. To be honest, I don’t really remember how the goal occurred, but somehow it went in and maybe it was one of those pucks that didn’t go in for us recently but did today instead.
So Kärpät Oulu’s coming up in the semi-finals. Do you know anything about them?
No, to be honest I haven’t studied the Finnish Liiga well enough. But we’ll sit down to watch videos of them and just set our minds on that it’s a highly skilled team as well. Finnish teams have a tendency to be strong and they’re in the semi-finals for a reason, just like us. So it will be a tough experience and inspiring and exciting at the same time.