The quarterfinal series in hockeyallsvenskan between Modo and AIK was completely even (2-2) before yesterday's game.
During game five in Örnsköldsvik on Saturday night, AIK's coach Anton Blomqvist took timeout at a disadvantage of 1-5.
His call to the players was captured on the television broadcast:
– Every time we can hit, we hit. We are probably not going to win this game now, so let's play dirty. Play dirty here, Blomqvist says in English before continuing in Swedish:
– Play ugly, play ugly! No suspensions. Play ugly!
Match penalty for Norin
After the timeout, AIK drew expulsion after expulsion. There were a total of 41 penalty minutes for AIK after Blomqvist's call, which culminated with defenseman Eric Norin's match penalty after a slashing on Modo's Oscar Pettersson.
Modo eventually won 8-3. After the game, Anton Blomqvist was reported to the disciplinary committee for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Hockeyallsvenskan's head of refereeing Björn Wettergren tells Sportbladet that they will look at the situation:
"I'm at the game myself and therefore didn't hear what was said in AIK's timeout, but I've had it told to me and as with anything else that's out of the ordinary, so to speak, it's something we'll look at afterwards. Then we'll see what it leads to," Wettergren said.
The next quarterfinal between the teams will be played on Monday evening in Stockholm. Modo leads 3-2 in best-of-seven matches.