In the first 60 minutes of this all-Swedish Champions Hockey League Round of 16 match-up, Frölunda Gothenburg erased a 3-1 deficit on the road to defeat the Växjö Lakers 4-3, giving the defending European Club Champions the lead heading into the Return Game at home.

After killing off an early penalty, Frölunda opened the scoring at 3:42. After a face-off win in the attacking zone, Samuel Fagemo’s shot missed the net, but caromed off the end boards and Liam Dower-Nilsson had the easy tap-in at the side of the net.

The Lakers tied it just over two minutes later when Keegan Lowe loaded up a Jimi Suomi one-timer from the point, which blew past everyone.

Frölunda thought they’d regained the lead just past the first period’s midpoint but it was called back due to goaltender interference. Then with just over three minutes remaining in the opening frame, the Lakers went in front when Kalle Kratz managed to get his stick on a loose puck during a goalmouth scramble and backhand it past Lars Johansson.

The Lakers extended their lead to 3-1 at 24:05 on a brilliant effort from Karl Henriksson, who took a pass from Joel Persson, drove to the net and beat Johansson on his backhand. Frölunda dominated the rest of the middle frame, however, and Ludvig Persson had to be solid to keep his team in front. The visitors did cut their deficit in half in the 34th minute on a great play by Bosse Meijer, who was denied by Persson on his first shot, but the Frölunda sniper then circled the net and put the puck in at a tight angle.

Frölunda kept the pressure on to start the third period and drew even less than two minutes in when Linus Högberg’s point shot was deflected in front by Graeme Clarke. Interestingly, Persson was lifted from the Växjö goal with 7:32 remaining in favour of Adam Åhman. Then with 3:54 to go, Stefan Milošević scored the go-ahead goal, putting in the rebound through a screen.

The Lakers pushed for the late equalizer but Johansson made a couple of big saves in the last minute, meaning they’ll have an uphill climb ahead of them on the road next week.