SHL Playoffs: Lulea Stave Off Sweep, Beat Skelleftea to Force Game 5 in Semis

Shinnimin’s double lifts Lulea past Skelleftea, avoids SHL playoff sweep

Reigning champions Lulea avoided a semi-final sweep with a 3-2 win over top-seeded Skelleftea in game four. Brendan Shinnimin scored twice as Lulea held off a late push, including a disallowed equalizer, to send the SHL playoff series to game five in Skelleftea on Wednesday.

Lulea survive late scare, deny Skelleftea sweep with 3-2 game 4 win...

Reigning Swedish Hockey League champions Lulea avoided a clean sweep in their playoff semi-final series against Skelleftea, holding on for a 3-2 win in game four.

Skelleftea’s game-one winner in the fourth overtime period had looked like Lulea’s only real shot at upsetting the top seeds, as they then lost 5-0 on the road and 3-1 at home in the next two games.

But hopes were revived midway through the first period when Pontus Johansson was called for holding the stick. Isac Hedqvist kept the play alive by tapping the puck back to Brendan Shinnimin, who buried it on the powerplay.

However, Lulea couldn't capitalize on more powerplays around the 20-minute mark, and that looked costly 14 minutes into the second period when Mikkel Aagaard and Oscar Lindberg pulled the home defence apart before setting up Arvid Lundberg for the equalizer.

Lulea had other plans, though, and retook the lead four minutes later when Mathias Brome found an open Jesper Sellgren, who had time to fire a second goal for the hosts past Linus Soderstrom.

Skellefteå kvitterade genom Arvid Lundberg, men bara några minuter senare så var Luleå i ledning igen när Jesper Sellgren hittade nätmaskorna. pic.twitter.com/ucPUeFHXCt

— SHL.se (@SHLse) April 13, 2026

That handed the home side all the momentum to start the third period, and Shinnimin once more - with Hedqvist assisting - made it count just 40 seconds in, scoring his second to open up a two-goal cushion.

Lulea were left to sweat for the rest of the period after Oskar Vuollet pulled one back less than two minutes later. With four minutes left, Viktor Grahn thought he’d forced overtime, but his goal was waved off for goaltender interference on Matteus Ward.

Still, the Norrbotten County club hung on for the 3-2 win to extend the series to game five, set for Wednesday the 15th back in Skelleftea.