Frölunda started out this week down three games to two in the first round of the playoffs. They’d just won their must-win Saturday game, and had to win two more to stay alive against last year’s semi-finalist Skellefteå. Needless to say, that wasn’t easy.
Skellefteå had Joni Ortio in net, one of the Calgary Flames triumvirate of despair last year, and my favourite out of the trio despite his stats. He decamped to Sweden fast after that NHL disaster season and has seen his save percentage go up on a defensively-gifted team.
Carl Grundström has had one game where he solved him, and that was last Saturday.