With three wins on the bounce, Frolunda were expected to make light work of the side who had won three times all season, but it took until the 19th minute for HV 71's resistance to finally break as Arttu Ruotsalainen put the hosts ahead.
Five minutes into the second period, Jere Innala made it 2-0 to the Gothenburg side, but instead of the floodgates opening, it would be the visitors who grabbed the next goal, courtesy of Jamiro Reber, just over a minute into the third period.
With eight shots on goal to their opponents' three in the final 20 minutes, the side bottom of the standings pushed Frolunda all the way, but could not force an equaliser late on and fell to a 2-1 loss.
HV 71 stay in 16th place on 10 points, while not a single one of Frolunda's 11 wins and two losses this season has required overtime.
HV 71 are four points behind their nearest rivals, Malmo who fell into the bottom two despite pushing second-placed Rogle hard by Malmo, before falling to a 5-3 defeat that keeps Rogle within two points of Frolunda.
Both sides in the drop zone can take heart from the fact every one of the bottom six teams were beaten tonight, although climbing out of the bottom two were Leksand, who lost in overtime to Timra, 3-2, which at least ends a run of four defeats in Regulation. Timra hold on to their top six status.
Only one point separated Lulea and Linkoping before tonight, yet the former ran out 4-1 winners at home, while Vaxjo beat Brynas 2-1 and Orebro's recent run of form was ended in a 5-3 defeat at Djurgarden.
In fact, the only team to beat a side higher than them in the standings tonight were Farjestad, who twice equalised against third-placed Skelleftea to take the match to overtime, in which there would be no separating them.
Mikkel Aagaard was the only player to find the net in the shootout for the visitors, meaning strikes from Oskar Steen and Per Aslund won the shootout for seventh-placed Farjestad, sealing a 3-2 win after penalties.
Review all the results and scorers from tonight's SHL matches on Flashscore.