Emil Heineman scored a hat-trick as Leksands IF overturned a 4-0 first game deficit and stormed their way to an 8-1 win that puts them into the CHL Quarter-Finals for the first time.

A blistering display brought Leksand to within one goal of KAC Klagenfurt by the end of the first period - by the end of the second, they were in front and Heineman netted twice in the final period to secure the win. 

Trialing 4-0 from the first game in Austria, the Swedes immediately went to work on reducing Klagenfurt’s lead as Isak Rosèn skated up from centre-ice and snapped a shot past Sebastian Dahm with barely 90 seconds on the clock.

The 18 year-old had registered a lone assist in his seven games prior to this game, but by 8:49, he had added his second, this time picking his spot from the right circle with his side on the powerplay. 

The Leksand powerplay would wreak havoc with Klagenfurt all night and they went two-from-two with the man advantage on 12:27, this time Heineman, the shooter pulling the trigger, after some incisive passing that cut the startled Austrian’s lead to just one-goal. 

The pressure on Dahm’s goal continued into the second-frame and the netminder was required to perform a string of saves to keep Leksand at bay. That was until Leksand remarkably went three-from-four on the powerplay when Carl Själin’s shot was tipped in by Martin Karlsson for the aggregate-tying goal on 32:58.

It seemed just a matter of time as to when Leksand would take the aggregate lead and three minutes later, a ruthless 5-on-3 powerplay saw Matt Caito shoot from the slot to give them a 5-4 advantage heading into the final period. 

Klagenfurt temporarily managed to stem the one-way traffic in the third frame and briefly tied the game on aggregate when Lukas Haudum was on hand to tuck the puck in after it evaded Leksand's Axel Brage, who had been largely untested in net.

The Swedes were quickly able to restore their lead however as Heineman added his second of the night before adding sniping a seventh off the rush that sealed his hat-trick. Carter Camper’s late empty-netter wrapped up the win with Leksand’s eighth-goal of the night as the Swedes completed a huge return game comeback.