In the spring of 2017, HV71 and Brynäs settled for the Swedish Championship gold in a memorable final series.
Saturday's match in Gävle was about the clubs' existence in the SHL.
It looked for a long time that Filip Sandberg's goal, two minutes into the second period, would give three very important points to HV71.
Decided by extension
But with less than five minutes left of the third period, the equalizer came.
Brynäs' Greg Scott scored his eighth, and most important, goal this season when he made it 1-1 behind Hugo Alnefelt.
Then there were no more goals in regular time.
The match went to extra time - and with 16 seconds left, Brynäs decided to 2-1 through John Nyberg.
Two extremely important points for Brynäs, who thus crossed the bottom line in the SHL table.
HV71 is now increasingly looking to adjust to negative qualifying play.
The team has four matches left to play - but has nine points up to Brynäs on the right side of the qualifying line.
Since HV71 stepped up in the highest league again in 1985, the team has never gone out of it.