In the closing minutes, the red-wine-colored Lugi fans stood up and applauded while it was muffled at the RIK bench. There was despair in the RIK camp with, tears, blank stares and drooping heads.
Before the meeting in Lund, the three bottom teams Redbergslid, Helsingborg and Lugi collected 16 points. RIK with 20 Swedish Championship golds on the track record had the worst goal difference and had to take points to escape direct relegation.
Things looked good in the first half and RIK led 12-10 when they had Mario Lipovac sent off with a direct red card, which was converted into a blue for further review.
After that, Lugi turned the game on cheered on by a boisterous crowd.
When Casper Käll wriggled his way through and made it 25-20, the string went off. RIK took a timeout to try to do the impossible. Lugi held a three, four-goal advantage and never gave RIK the little finger.
Lugi now advances to qualifying to stay in the Handball League.