Frölunda lost their momentum, Luleå found their. Oskarshamn had a rough week. Joakim Lindström is red hot and Emil Larsson face a five game suspension. Here's what went down in the past week.
Frölunda, a team that's been looking better and better as the season has come a long, hit a few major bumps in the road last week. On Tuesday they were shut out by Leksand (4-0) before bouncing back to grab a 4-1 win against Oskarshamn. But on Saturday, they got a real hammering by Brynäs, losing 7-1. Despite their losses, Frölunda remain on top in the standings.
Leksand played two games this past week, grabbing a total of four points after losing on overtime to Linköping Thursday (2-1). Linköping, in turn, ended their week with five points, having beat Oskarshamn 6-3 Thursday before losing to Luleå 2-3 on Saturday.
The former high-flying Oskarshamn went through their week without grabbing a single point in three games and are now on a five game losing streak. What's worse, Oscar Sundh left the game against Örebro on a stretcher after a nasty collision in the third period. After review, the player dishing out the hit, Emil Larsson, has been slapped with a five game suspension.
With Örebro winning 2-1, they keep a six game streak against Oskarshamn alive: In the six games the teams have met in the SHL, Örebro has five wins in regulation and one on overtime, making them the only team Oskarshamn have yet to beat in the SHL.
After their share of Covid-19, HV71 were back in action Saturday, taking on Färjestad in one of the most classic matchups in the SHL. In a back-and-forth game, Färjestad came away with a 3-2 win after HV71 had a goal disallowed with two tenths of a second remaining. Färjestad then went on in a normally, but in this season probably not, back-to-back, losing to Luleå on Sunday (4-1).
Speaking of Luleå, with Covid-19 changing schedules and all that, they play, as these words are being written, four games a span of six days, starting with the overtime win against Örebro Thursday (4-3). From the Saturday game in Linköping (3-2 win), they then went to Karlstad Sunday to grab another three points. They will finish their roadtrip in Jönköping Tuesday, when facing HV71.
The Malmö Redhawks have had their schedule chopped to pieces as well and they only played the one game this past week, but did so in high fashion, travelling to Skellefteå and grabbing the win, thanks to a 4-3 result. That was their first win in Skellefteå since October 30th, 2018. Emil Sylvegård scored twice, making him hit triple digits in points in the SHL. His first goal made it an even 100.
Turning to the player side of things, Joakim Lindström of Skellefteå has really found his groove. In the three games he played last week, he had four points (one goal, three assist). In the past nine games, Lindström has two goals and eight assist. Other players in form are Anton Rödin of Brynäs who had four points in two games, equally devided between goals and assist. Four points also goes for Tyler Kelleher of Oskarshamn and Alexander Holtz of Djurgården (all of them being assist). Henrik Törnqvist, Linköping, had three goals during the week. As did Luleå d-man Nils Lundkvist, who scored twice in their Sunday win against Färjestad, thereby extending his own point streak to three games.
The only goalie to post a shutout this past week was Janne Juvonen of Leksand who turned away all shots against Frölunda. Juvonen played two games in the week and had a GAA of 0,99. The goalie making the most saves was Mantas Armalis of Djurgården. In his three games, he turned away 84 shots, while allowing seven goals for a saves percentage of 92,31, which was the best saves percentage for a goalie playing three games and fourth amongst all goalies with at least two games.
This week, we have a spread-out schedule with Covid-19 forcing the changes. Tuesday brings the first two games of the week, Thursday providing six games and if all goes to plan, Saturday will bring a full seven game slate.