Back-to-back comfortable wins had seen Skelleftea regain second place in the standings, but their chances of a third took a nosedive in the final seven minutes of the first period, as Jakub Vrana put Linkoping ahead, before Christoffer Ehn scored a shock second when his side were shorthanded.
Yet five minutes into the second, the home side were probably wondering what all the fuss was about - Rickard Hugg took just 10 seconds to pull a goal back, then two goals in 20 seconds, from Lars Bryggman and Arvid Lundberg, saw Skelleftea take a 3-2 lead.
But penalties soon after allowed Linkoping a route back in, and they levelled midway through the match through Zion Nybeck's powerplay goal. However, it was then Linkoping whose discipline failed them, as they conceded a penalty, which Oliver Okuliar netted for 4-3.
Again, Skelleftea could not hold onto the lead, and six minutes into the third period, Jonathan Myrenberg equalised. Neither side could find a late winner or an overtime goal, so the match would be settled with a shootout.
Nick Shore scored first up for Linkoping, but Okuliar could not score again as he had done in regulation time. His miss was the first of five in a row, meaning Linkoping took a 1-0 shootout win and a 5-4 victory in the match.
It's a third win in a row for Linkoping, who are in 11th, but are now level on points with the side in the final Playoff place, Brynas, who were beaten 3-1 at home to runaway leaders Frolunda, whose advantage over Skelleftea has grown to a whopping 12 points.
Skelleftea stay second but their lead over Rogle has been cut to two points as the Angelholm side held on for a 2-1 win over Farjestad following two Felix Nilsson strikes. It's a first win in three for Rogle, while it's the end of a three-game winning run for Farjestad.
Like Rogle, fourth-placed Vaxjo also snapped a two-game losing run to maintain their position, scoring four second-period goals on their way to a 5-2 win over Timra, who have slid to ninth following four losses on the bounce.
Malmo no longer have the second-best winning streak in the SHL, as their six-game run was halted by Lulea, who triumphed 6-4 on the road to remain a point behind Linkoping following successive victories.
Erik Gustafsson, Benjamin Tardif and Frederic Allard's goals in the first 20 minutes stunned the home crowd, and the game looked to be all but won eight minutes into the second period, when Pontus Andreasson made it 4-0.
A pair of powerplay strikes in four minutes from Carl Persson and Fredrik Handemark gave the Redhawks hope, but Anton Levtchi netting Lulea the first goal of the final period quelled many of the home side's comeback hopes.
However, Malmo still made a real go of it, as Linus Oberg and Axel Sundberg fired an even quicker pair of goals to make it a one-goal game with 10 minutes to play, only for Brian O'Neill to finally seal it for the champions with less than two minutes left.
Malmo stay fifth, a point ahead of Farjestad but seven shy of Vaxjo, while a 5-2 win for HV 71 over Djurgarden means Lulea are still six points clear of the bottom two, and Farjestad remain in the top six thanks to a superior goal difference over Djurgarden.
Orebro have climbed two places to eighth, after a pair of first-period goals were enough for them to see off bottom-of-the-table Leksand, 2-1, sealing a fifth straight loss for the basement dwellers.
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