What a difference a week has made for MoDo.
They had won just one of their last seven games heading into the international break and were looking vulnerable to being dragged into the relegation play-off if they didn’t start picking up some wins quickly. As I put it in last week’s column:
“MoDo’s situation could look much rosier by the end of Thursday evening if they can take advantage of games against Örebro (on Tuesday) and Oskarshamn, whilst HV71 have to face the tougher task (on paper) of playing Färjestad and Luleå.”
They did that and more, securing three consecutive wins and increasing their gap to 13th place from two points to eight in less than a week. Although that doesn’t make them safe, it gives them some breathing space to get the points needed over their remaining nine games to extinguish any risk of an immediate return to the HockeyAllsvenkan.
Having won their first two games on the week against Örebro and Oskarshamn respectively, they could go into their game against Timrå on Saturday with a little less pressure on their shoulders than they have had for a good six weeks or so. That showed when they gave Timrå an absolute thumping, running up seven goals in a 7-1 victory with Erik Walli Walterholm, Kristians Rubins and Johan Södergran all scoring for the first time after a long time.
Mattias Karlin’s team has a tough run of games to come against Skellefteå, Linköping and Växjö before travelling to Husqvarna Garden on 29 February to face HV71, although their new-found confidence could help them to grab another win or two before they get there. Their first chance to do that will come on Thursday when they host Skellefteå just two days after their opponents will be playing in the Champions Hockey League Final.
Skellefteå in form heading into the CHL Final
Skellefteå travel to Geneva in excellent form, with their 4-1 victory over HV71 on Saturday being their fourth league win in a row.
Robert Ohlsson’s team came into the 2023-24 season determined to make up for their disappointing end to last season. They really didn’t perform anywhere close to their potential in the SHL Final series against Växjö Lakers and were pushed aside in just five games (4-1).
Skellefteå were then rocked by an illness to captain Oscar Möller that has ruled him out for the entire season and put a return to hockey to one side in everyone’s thoughts as he concentrates on simply returning to full health.
They’ve used the setbacks as fuel and currently sit 4th in the SHL whilst battling their way past Oceláři Třinec, Färjestad and Vítkovice in the knockout stages of the Champions Hockey League.
Reigning Swiss National League champions Genève-Servette await them in the final and their opponents get home-ice advantage due to their overall record throughout this season’s CHL campaign. CHL games don’t always attract big crowds for some reason; however that won’t be an issue at Les Vernets on Tuesday evening and I’m sure there will be a travelling contingent cheering on Skellefteå.
There’s plenty of pre-game coverage on the CHL website to check out: https://www.championshockeyleague.com/en
The game begins at 19:30 CET, 18:30 GMT, and will either be available on YouTube or your regional/national hockey TV provider depending on the country you are in. Viaplay will be providing the coverage here in the UK.
Good Form/Bad Form
SHL league leaders Färjestad have won six in a row, with their most recent success coming at the expense of a struggling Rögle club. David Tomasek scored twice in a 3-1 victory for Karlstad’s finest to put him at the top of the goal-scoring charts with 22 on the season.
That’s not the best active winning streak, though, as Frölunda grabbed their eighth straight win on Saturday against Oskarshamn.
It was a tale of two teams heading in completely opposite directions, as bottom club Oskarshamn have now lost nine in a row. They will be desperate to avoid the losing streak going into double figures when they face Luleå on Thursday and will have a fair chance to do so if they repeat what was a competitive showing against Frölunda, only going down by a score of 2-1.
Unfortunately for Oskarshamn, they suffered a big blow last week with the news that Patrik Karlkvist’s arm injury will keep him out for the rest of the regular season and almost certainly the relegation play-off series too. Karlkvist is their fourth highest points scorer this season with 22 from 35 games, after being the second-highest SHL points scorer last season with 61 points from 52 games, and they can ill afford to be without him as they fight to retain their SHL status.
Meanwhile, further up the table, Leksands have picked a terrible time to start dropping points, dropping out of the top six places after being thrashed 6-1 at home against Växjö on Saturday to make it six losses in a row.
SHL League Table
