Swedish Elite League

[Doktor Kosmos]

I posted this on a different message board on Monday this week:

Season is under way. I'm watching Skellefteå vs. Brynäs. Skellefteå has come back to the Elite League after a sixteen-year abscense. Their key players will obviously be their first line, featuring veteran Magnus Wernblom, currently fourth on the all-time scoring list (and second on the all-time penelty list), former Västerås player Fredrik Öberg and midget sized set-up man Anders Söderberg. On the blueline they are anchored by the infamous Richard Lintner. Luckily they have a good goalie in Andreas Hadelöv, who played a number of years for Malmö in the Elite League.

First period was mostly filled with penelties. Brynäs has spent the most time in the cooler, but Skellefteå haven't been able to create much in the way of organized power play. Bryäs has a bunch of seasoned veterans, especially Mikael Lind (a brilliant playmaker), Owe Mohlin (who won the Swedish championships with Brynäs way back in 1993) and defenseman Tommy Sjödin (41 years young, think he had a short stint with the Nordiques and/or the North Stars/Stars in the early 1990's), and they killed off all but one penelty. Wernblom scored the historic marker though, and Skellefteå leads 1-0 after the first.

All we've seen of Lintner and Brynäs' Caps prospect Nicklas Bäckström so far is a penelty each, both 2 minute minors for hooking I think.

Second period has started now, so I've gotta run. Be back with the rest later.

Johannes Salmonsson was just sent off 2+10 for checking from behind.

Andreas Dackell the latest to join the Celebrity Sinners list. 2 for hooking. Man are the refs earning their pay check!

2-2 after 2. Brynäs tied it 1-1, Skellefteå (my old hometown hero Öberg) took the lead 2-1, Brynäs tied it again. Öberg's goal was a pretty shitty goal. Through a crowd consisting of two Brynäs defenders and the goalie, Öberg poked the puck past the goalie, he was standing behind the extended goal line at the time.

Brynäs' second goal was kinda neat. Bäckström displayed some of his skills when he was forechecing with about 3 minutes left and forced a Skellefteå defender to shoot the puck over the board, which resulted in an automatic 2 minute penelty. On the power play that followed, Bäckström showed some good technical and playmaking skills, setting up a couple of good point shots. Skellefteå never really managed to get out of their own zone, and about 20 seconds after they were back to even strength, Brynäs scored when one of the defenders went in on goal and redirected the puck to the back of the net.

Skellefteå has also played pretty well on the powerplay, much better than they did in the first, but they need to convert on their chances. Then again, if Brynäs keep taking bad penelties it'll wear 'em down.

So it's a 2-2 tie going into the third period. If Brynäs can stay out of the box it'll be to their advantage, if they keep getting sent off Skellefteå will get good chances to win it.

Game ended with a 3-3 tie after a 5 minute sudden death overtime.

Bäckström scored the go-ahead goal about halfway through, on a five-on-three powerplay, a nifty one-timer off a flip-pass across the crease. Bäckström was without doubt one of the best players in the game.

His performance was somewhat overshadowed by Lintner though. Lintner banged home a one-timer with six seconds left of regulation. Lintner's pretty fun to watch, but he sometimes shows tendencies towards choosing the slower and more difficult plays when the best thing to is just passing the puck forward quickly. He gets a little overly creative.

I think the tie was a fair result. Brynäs was probably the better team in the third, but Skellefteå hung in there and never quit despite being down a goal. Their work ethics will prove valuable for them, but they have a lot of work to do, you could tell from time to time that their players have a lot less experience from playing in the big league than most (if not all) of their opponents have. The tie will mean a lot to them though; now they have made it through the season opener with their honor intact, so to speak. They have a lot of work to do, but they also have something to build on.

Half of the 12 teams played tonight, the remainning 6 start their season tomorrow.

Scores from the first round (home team - visiting team):

Färjestad - Luleå 4-3 (Luleå started out strong, taking the lead 2-0 on the road, but in the end the reigning champs won it)

Linköping - Frölunda 5-2

Skellefteå - Brynäs 3-3

Games tomorrow:

Timrå - MoDo

HV 71 - Malmö

Djurgården - Mora

And I posted this on Tuesday:

First round of games was completed today:

Djurgården - Mora 5-2

HV 71 - Malmö 3-2

Timrå - MoDo 3-0

Seems like Linköping has acquired former Flyer Roman Cechmanek, and Malmö had Caps prospect Ratislav Stana in goal. Jonathan Hedström (spent last season in Anaheim I think) scored two goals for Timrå.

And this today:

Today's scores:

Brynäs - HV 71 2-0

Frölunda - Djurgården 3-3

Luleå - Skellefteå 5-3

Malmö - Timrå 1-2

MoDo - Linköping 1-0

Mora - Färjestad 4-4

I saw MoDo christen their new arena with a very amusing 1-0 win. Robert Döme scored only about three minutes in, but despite the lack of scoring it was actually a great game. From time to time both teams were disorganized, and there was a lot of sloppy passing, but there were also periods with brilliant playing, rushes up and down, a cuople of big hits, and exciting scoring chances. Obviously, both goalies were outstanding. Linköping's Cechmanek made a couple of tough saves, but he was outshined by MoDo's Karol Krizan (think he's a Swedish citizen born in Poland).

Niklas Sundström played well for MoDo. He helped secure the win for MoDo when he blocked a pass/shot just inside the blueline and the puck trickled out into the neutral zone, with only seconds left and too little time for Linköping to be able to get a last chance to tie the game. Hans Jonsson was his usual unpredictable self, mixing a good checking game with both good shots and butter-finger passes and dangerous plays on the offensive blue line (one of which ended up costing him two minutes in the box for intereference).

Frölunda's Steve Kariya had an assist and 2 PIM. Mikael Renberg had an assist and 4 PIM for Luleå, and Magnus Wernblom scored two for Skellefteå. Jonathan Hedström scored the OT GWG for Timrå against Malmö. Peter Regin (whom I believe is Danish) also scored for Timrå, and Lasse Pirjetä scored for Malmö. Andreas Dackell scored the first goal in Brynäs' win.

Edited September 21, 2006 by Doktor Kosmos