Holiday recap

After 31 league matches HV 71 tops the standings with 60 points. Linköpings HC is hot and their tails (59 points) and is challenging HV for the top spot going into the New Year.

HV 71 has been on top of the league since day one. They beat LHC in the season opener 6-2 in Linköping and went on to get points in their next 10 of 12 games. They pretty much dominated in the fall but has since let other teams gain some ground. HV 71 leads the league in goals (119) and has 2 players in the top 10 of scoring in Johan Davidsson (8+31) and David Petrasek (12+24).


Photo: Tobias Josefsson

Linköping has currently solidified second place due to stellar play since the end of October. LHC's season started a little on the slow side and they were a middle of the pack team. But, on Oct. 26th the direction of the team changed. Jan Hlavac and Jaroslav Hlinka finally joined the team and since then Linköping has a record of 14-2-3 and pickied up 43 of their now 59 points. Putting them 1 point from HV 71. LHC has 5 players in the the top 10. Tony Mårtensson leads all scorers with 42 points (11+31). Mikael Håkansson has 33, Magnus Johansson has 31 and Hlavac and Hlinka are tied for 8th with 28 a piece. Hlavac leads all goal scorers with 18.

Färjestad, last season's champs, have held their own this season and have hovered around the top 4 all year. All this despite losing more than half of last years Gold Team. FBK doesn't have any top 10 scorers, but evenly placed the scoring over their top 2 lines.Marcus Paulsson and Per Åslund lead all Färjestad players with 17 points each. This might attribute to FBK having only scored 72 goals so far this season tying them for last in scoring with 3 other teams (Södertälje, Brynäs and Skellefteå).


Photo: Anna-Lena Bergqvist

Djurgården currently owns the 4th spot in the standings with 50 points. DIF is tied for second in goals against with 70 and is 3rd in goals for with 86. Rookie sensation, Markus Krüger, leads Djurgården in points with 27 (9+18) and is currently number 10 in scoring. Another reason for their success is goalie Stefan Ridderwall's performance this season. He leads all goaltenders in GAA  1.81 and SV% 93.4.

Frölunda is another team that struggled at the beginning of the season but has righted t hermselves as of late. Currently at number 5, Frölunda has steadily moved up in the standings this past month. Like Färjestad, they don't have any top 10 scorers, but they have spread out their scoring between their top lines with Fredrik Pettersson leading all Frölunda scorers with 22 points (11+11).

Skellefteå has been on a skid as of late and has lost 7 straight, their last win was Nov. 26, 3-2 victory over Rögle. Even with this recent losing streak, SAIK still has a solid 45 points and in 6th place has a 7 point cushion for a play-off spot.


Photo: Tobias Josefsson

Luleå will be sitting at number 7 coming out of the Holiday break with 43 points. They have been a stable middle of the pack team this season and are hoping to secure one of the eight play-off spots this season. Veteran Martin Chabada scoring has tapered off this season with only 9 points in 26 games. But the newly acquired Abbott twins, Cam and Chris, have contributed to the scoring production. Cam leads the team with 22 (10+12) and brother Chris is in 4th internally with 17 (10+7).


Photo: Anders Erkgärds

Brynäs only has 8 regulation wins this season but with their 4 OT victories and 12 ties, BIF has secured the 8th spot after 31 matches. Their defense has been suberb in only letting in 70 goals thanks to the outstounding goaltening from Jacob Markström who sits statisticly number 2 in the league behind Stefan Ridderwall.

MODO, in 9th place so late in the season has been a shocker to some experts. But, MODO, since the addition of Markus Näslund and Peter Forsberg have actually crawled out of last place to put themselves all so closer to a play-off spot. MODO had picked up 25 of their 38 points since the beginning of November and are one the hottest teams in December. MODO only has 6 regulation wins (2 less than BIF), but has 6 OT wins and 14 ties which has contributed to their recent rise.


Photo: Fotograf Ralf Bergman

Timrå, like MODO, was also a last place team just a month ago, but their recent success has them in 10th place with same amout of points (38) as MODO. Timrås 19 points in November helped them out of the cellar and have set their sites on getting into the play-offs.

Rögle started out the season well and hovered around the middle of the pack, but recent losing streaks has dropped them to number 11 and all so closer to having to qualify to stay in the league. But, The good news is that there are 24 matches left to changes directions and start moving upwards again.

Södertälje has had a few losing streaks this season and now they have a 7 game streak going. SSK started out the season well but since November have only won 3 games in regulation. They have scored the least amount of goals (72) and have let in  the most (109). They are currently 10 points from a play-off spot and also have 24 games to right their wrongs.

Hockey in the Elitserien continues December 26th. Merry Christmas everyone!

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