After scoring a goal to help his Lulea Hockey club advance to the Champions Hockey league final, forward Karl Fabricius spoke about his team's accomplishment. 

by Henrik Lundqvist

LULEA – Lulea Hockey have advanced to the final of the Champions Hockey League after beating Skelleftea AIK 3–2 on home ice. The final will also be on home ice, 3 February against Frolunda Gothenburg. Karl Fabricius got things started by scoring the first goal of the game at 5:41 – his fifth goal of the competiton. 

Immediately after the game, Fabricius spoke to the Lulea club website. You can watch the interview in Swedish here.

Congratulations on the win, Karl. What can you say right after the game?

Thanks a lot. It feels incredibly good. This has been one of our biggest goals for the season, to make it to the final and then win this tournament. Now we’re on our way, so I’m incredibly happy.

What do you think about the start of the game? You scored the first goal.

I think we came out with a lot of energy. All lines had great speed. We appeared to be alert. Unfortunately some lack of discipline and some bad luck with the calls forced us to kill a lot of penalties.

You spent a lot of time shorthanded in the game, but killed most of them off (6-for-7).

We won, so maybe that was the way to go. But of course, it’s never good – it costs a lot of energy and we get out of sync. Some players get to rest and others have to play a lot. I’m glad we got through it. Great effort by us.

What about Jan Sandstrom’s power-play goal? How important was it?

Incredibly important. At that time I was saying a little prayer for a two-goal lead so we could get some breathing room. Skellefteå were playing good. The timing was important psychologically.

At the end they pulled the goalie. You were playing 5-on-5 because they had a penalty and then they scored. How does that happen?

We have to be sharper there. It was 5-on-5 and he he had no pressure on him and was able to get a shot away. It doesn’t matter. We rode it out and made it to the final. That’s the main thing.

You were in Bratislava in 2012. Now it’s a final again. Thoughts?

I remember the joy (after the European Trophy win), how incredibly fun it was, and the welcome we got when we came home. I thought about that before the game today – that we want to experience that again.