Tonight was crunch time in the Champions Hockey League Semi-Finals, and in Sweden two former champions went head to head to try and secure their place as Luleå Hockey played host to the reigning champions the Frölunda Indians after Luleå took a 3-2 victory in the first leg.

With a one-goal advantage, Luleå were entering the second leg on home ice and looking to use that to their advantage, and they found a way to strike first.

After going close a few times, Juhani Tyrväinen wouldn’t be denied forever, eventually opening the scoring on the night, and giving the hosts 4-2 aggregate lead, jumping on the puck after a long shot went wide and bounced off the boards, beating Johan Mattsson who was sprawling to take away the angle, but couldn’t stop it from cross the line for the only goal of the opening period, with 

Frölunda had a few chances early in the second period, but couldn’t get anything to really challenge Joel Lassinantti, until midway through, when Lassinantti denied Frölunda captain Joel Lundqvist who was left alone in the slot, but in his 1000th appearance for the club, couldn’t tie things up.

If you give Frölunda too many chances eventually they’ll strike, after a few near misses, the reigning champions found themselves on the powerplay, and after lassinantti made an initial save, the puck sprawled loose to captain Lundqvist who found Rhett Rakhshani, sending it into the gaping net to tie things up on the night, but still Frölunda trailed by one overall.

It didn’t take long in the third for things to be evened up on aggregate, a good forecheck kept the play alive for Frölunda, and then in his 1000th game for Frölunda, Joel Lundqvist redirected a shot past Lassinantti to make it 2-1 to the visitors on the night, but 4-4 overall, setting up a very interesting final 20 minutes of action.

Frölunda kept on pushing, looking to take the lead overall, and just after the midway point, Ryan Lasch wired a shot past Lassinantti, placing it past the blocker and into the net, giving the reigning champions a lead on the road, and meaning the hosts Luleå had less than 10 minutes to try and regain control of the tie to either advance, or force overtime.

Try as they might, it just wasn't to beat for Luleå who couldn't find anything to get past Johan Mattsson who stood tall in net in the last moments of the Semi-Final, helping defend the lead all the way to the final buzzer to secure a fifth Champions Hockey League final for the Frölunda Indians, as they came from behind in each of their playoff series' on the way.

It'll be a Group H affair and a rematch when the final gets underway as Frölunda take on Mountfield HK to see who can be crowned this years Champions.