There were five games on Tuesday evening in the SHL. There was notable news for five of the teams in terms of their line-up, as rounded up below. All of the Team Line-Up Charts have been updated for their starting line-ups from yesterday, their powerplay and penalty kill stats, and an initial projected line-up for the games on Thursday. Click on the team headings, or use the menu at the top of the site, to browse the team information.
HV71
HV lost 3-1 to Skellefteå and appear to have taken over the injury curse that affected their opponents in pre-season.
Having lost Oliwer Kaski (4 weeks) and Oscar Fisker Mølgaard (8 weeks) to injuries in their opening game, HV suffered two further casualties in their second game. Defenceman Wilhelm Hallquisth took a puck to the face, losing some teeth in the process, whilst Herman Hansson came off the ice in clear pain and with a bloody nose and a sore wrist after a tackle. Both ended up being taken to a local hospital to have their injuries assessed and treated.
HV71 have posted an update on their website this afternoon and the news isn’t good.
HV71 suffered two injuries in the premiere against Växjö Lakers. Yesterday there were two more injuries since Wilhelm Hallquisth and Herman Hansson were forced out during the match against Skellefteå. Doctor Jonas Kalman examined the players on Wednesday.
“For Wilhelm, it is an upper body injury that will keep him out of action for 1-2 weeks. With Herman it was unfortunately a little worse. He has suffered a wrist injury that requires surgery and I expect him to miss games for three months”, Kalman announces.
Adding illness to injury, HV71 were also without forward Joona Luoto yesterday due to him being unwell.
Skellefteå
As for their opponents, Skellefteå have still got a bunch of players on the injured list and they may be adding Frans Haara to it. He took a nasty landing during last night’s game and it appears that he may have suffered a concussion.
Skellefteå announced this afternoon that they have agreed a short-term loan deal with Allsvenskan team Karlskoga for Stefan Milosevic and that he will be in the squad for Thursday’s game against Växjö.
Timrå
Timrå’s captain Anton Lander, injured in the previous game, was missing for their match against Örebro. Thankfully for the home team, they were able to regroup and beat Örebro in Overtime to give new Head Coach Olli Jokinen his first victory in dramatic fashion.
It was an exciting game, on an evening where that was a common theme. Timrå trailed 3-2 until Anton Lundmark equalised with eight minutes to go. Anton Wedin then got the winner with just seven seconds left in OT.
Örebro
It was a frustrating loss for Örebro, even if they did still come away with a losing point; however they have had some good news off the ice.
It was reported last week that they were trying to come to an agreement with free agent centre Kalle Kossila. SportBladet are reporting today that the two parties are close to agreeing a three-year contract.
The only problem is that there are costly tax implications for the Finnish forward if he moves back to Sweden before 27 October. SportBladet note that Örebro have limited budget space, in part due to still owing Mathias Bromé and Philip Holm money this season after paying off their contracts. That means there is no scope for Örebro potentially to incentivise Kossila to sign earlier.
Kossila will still be an excellent addition for Örebro, even if they have to wait a month before he can join the team.
Leksand
I was correct in predicting that Charles Berglund would stick with Mantas Armalis as a show of confidence in his goaltender after he conceded five goals on Saturday. Unfortunately, things didn’t go much better for the goalie or his team on Tuesday night against Luleå.
Leksand were outplayed and lost 5-1, with Armalis conceding 4 goals on 24 shots and being replaced at the start of the Third Period by newcomer Jakob Hellsten. In fairness, you couldn’t really attach much blame to Armalis on the goals he conceded, but sometimes that’s the life of a goaltender when the defence in front of you is conceding good chances.
I suspect Hellsten will get the start between the pipes on Thursday when Leksand host Rögle.
