Skellefteå had not played since the 28th of December, due to a corona outbreak, when they were put away against Luleå in a hot northern derby on Saturday.
Initially, it was clear that the Västerbottens were rusty and the home team's early 1-0 goal was an invitation from Petter Granberg that Jack Connolly could take advantage of.
The guests played as they went along and equalized in powerplay in the middle of the first period.
When Luleå then put in an extra gear in the middle of the night, the team paid dividends and went from to both 2-1 and later 3-1 by team captain Erik Gustafsson.
Västerbotten came closer with five minutes left to play the match, Oscar Möller, but Luleå was able to hold off and put 4-2 in the open box through Isac Brännström.
Skellefteå won the season's first derby with 5-2 and now the people of Norrbotten took revenge.
- Oh, how rusty we were, I thought.
We had problems with Luleå's intensity.
It was one of our worse performances, says SAIK coach Robert Ohlsson in C More.
In the Luleå camp, there were mouth pores upwards.
- It was a nice home victory.
If we play like this, we are hard to beat, says two-goal shooter Jack Connolly.