It was a new loss for Enköping when the second round of the mid-day back-to-back matches against Surahammar was played in Bahcohallen on Tuesday evening. Surahammar wins the low-scoring match 2-1 after Enköping tried to play hockey from the penalty box.
Surahammar was thus able to follow up Sunday’s 5-2 victory against Enköping by also winning the return match in Bahcohallen on Tuesday with 2-1 in front of the season’s best crowd of 427 spectators.
Enköping tried the noble art of playing hockey from the penalty box, which is not usually a recipe for success. As many as nine two-minute shots, a total of 18 minutes, were scored in the first two periods alone, and even though a brilliant box play game meant that they held tight during all of them, it obviously still costs the strength to fight in a numerical disadvantage time and time again.
The match winner was once again an ex-ESK player when Sebastian Ehrencrona sent in the 2-1 puck with just over 13 minutes left in the third period.
Before that, Gustav Eriksson had neatly given ESK the lead in the first period and the visitors’ Leo Landor equalized in the second.
Goalkeeper Viktor Andersson kept the team in the match with a brilliant game and especially in the middle period he was important for the team, when they kept the score 1-1 despite playing almost a third of the period with one man less.
In the final stage of the third period, ESK makes several really good attempts to equalize and it was really close on a few occasions. The Scots won 14-4 in the period, but there was no goal.
ESK’s big problem was the high pressure that Surahammar put on the ESK defenders, where the visitors stopped the home team’s play time and again.
Unfortunately, ESK is therefore zero over the two matches against Surahammar and has to end 2025 with double losses.
The standings still look decent for the rest of the season. They remain in 16th place, but with as many as six (!) teams within just three points in front of them, there are good chances of advancement if they can only find their way back to winning ways again after the New Year.
And, yes, it is thus only three points away from a long-awaited play-off spot.
The next game is also on home ice and it is the Uppland derby against Wings on January 7.
ESK – Surahammar 1-2 (1-0, 0-1, 0-1)
Shots: 30-32 (8-14, 8-14, 14-4)
Expulsions: ESK 44 min – SIF 12 min
Goal: Gustav Eriksson
Audience: 427 people
