Game Summary, Sweden vs Ukraine

by pbadmin
on

Sweden-Ukraine 6-1 (3-0, 1-0, 2-1)

After 7-1 against Switzerland, Sweden got another comfortable win against Ukraine. The final score was 6-1 and could have been bigger if Sweden had played better in the second period. In a game of this kind where one team is supposed to be the better team it’s always good for them to get an early goal. That happened in this game. After only 18 seconds Henrik Sedin had opened the scoring. David Nyström threw the puck towards the goal and goalie Vitaly Lebed couldn’t stop the puck and Sedin took care of the rebound and backhanded an ice-shot beside Lebed. 2-0 came 5.52 in to the first period from Christian Berglund. After nine minutes Sweden got a chance to play 5-on-3 and with their fourth-line on the ice they managed to make the score 3-0. The goal was scored by Herman Hultgren with a slap-shot from the blueline.

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Henrik Zetterberg – the next star

by pbadmin
on

Henrik Zetterberg – the next star

Henrik Zetterberg has been playing great the whole season. He was drafted very
late (210 overall) by Detroit Red Wings in 1999. The truth is that he wasn’t a
top prospect last season. But the way he is playing this year is incredible.
He has dominated in the 2nd Tier League with Timra and been playing great on
the National Junior Team. Detroit made a real bust when they drafted him. He
is expected to join an Elite league team next season and that will make him
one of the top candidates for the Rookie of the Year award. So far Zetterberg
has 23 points (15g, 8a) in 28 games with Timra.
So what makes Henrik so special? He is not big, but he has great moves and an
impressing scoring touch. His skating skills are above average and he’s good
defensively.

Zetterberg was the best player in Sweden’s (vs Switzerland) opening game in
WJC. He showed some great puckhandling skills and scored a highlight goal on
his own. He got much ice-time, on the power-play as well as on the penalty
killing unit.

The report above was courtesy of Johan Nilsson, who runs his own Elitserien page located
at: http://www.eliteprospects.com/. I highly recommend
checking this site out, as it is one of the best sites on the net in regards to hard to find Swedish hockey info. Read more»

WJC preview

by Peter Westermark
on

The WJC’s are just two days away. The tournament is set to start in
Skellefteå and Umeå, Sweden, on Christmas Day. This year there isn’t one
team everyone agrees being the clear favourites to win it all, which makes
for a more interesting tournament. The Swedes should nevertheless go into
the tournament as favourites, closely followed by the Russians, Canadians
and Finns, in that order.

Sweden, knowing that it was high time to make a serious bid to win the
gold this year as hosts, has adopted a new strategy this year to help the
players considered for the JWC squad. The main idea is to make sure that no
player warms the bench all season before going to the JWC’s to have a
significant role. So, in coalition with Elitserien club teams the Swedish Ice
Hockey Federation created a rule which allows the players considered for the
JWC’s to leave their Elitserien team on loan if they are not getting into
the lineup there to play for teams in the Allsvenskan instead, which is the
level of senior hockey competition one notch below Elitserien. A significant
number of the players on Team Sweden are players who have benefited from Read more»

Sweden’s Top 15 Prospects for the 2000 NHL Draft

by pbadmin
on

List done in association with former Midget AAA Elite coach, and current head coach of the National 18 Team.

1. Martin Samuelsson, Modo, F.

189 cm, 87 kg.

1982 01 25

Shoots: L

Comments: Big strong forward, good ability to score goals. Will get his
hockey education from the top-notched coaching staff in Örnsköldsvik, who
have thaught the Sedin brother´s and Peter Forsberg and all of the other
supreme talent coming up from the ”hockey factory” of the northern part of
Sweden. That factor is a guarantee for success.

2. Tim Eriksson, Västra Frölunda HC, F.

174 cm, 71 kg.

1982 02 05

Shoots: L

Comments: Fast player who can handle the puck. Only weakness is size. Might
have better speed than Samuelsson.

3. Magnus Hedlund, Mora IK, D.

169 cm, 62 kg.

1982 01 02

Shoots: L

Comments: Should had been ranked first if he had been bigger. Strong player
though, who has dominated the Allsvenskan (South) League this
season.Unbelivable player who has everything except size. But size will
come, his body hasn´t start to develop yet, but count on this player. Also a
good hitter despite his size.

4. Niklas Kronwall, Djurgårdens IF, D.

179 cm, 71 kg.

1981 01 12

Shoots: L

Comments: Playing with the big mighty Djurgården team of the Swedish Elite Read more»

Djurgarden prospects

by pbadmin
on
Djurgarden is using a new system this season, using only one defenseman and four attackers on
each line. Basically, the defenseman’s (called sweeper) job is too take defensive
responsibility. Instead of using two defenseman, Djurgarden has two centers and two forwards
called torpedos. In each formation there is one offensive center and one defensive center,
however both centers participate a lot in the play when the team has the puck. Both the
torpedos have only offensive tasks and quoting the coach Mats Waltin: “We do not want too see
the torpedos in our own zone”. Djurgarden has a very offensive approach and both torpedos on each formation forecheck extremely hard.

Of course, playing with this system also means defensive problems. Teams who specialize in
counter-attacks have so far had great success against Djurgarden and the team often has to
face 1 on 2 or 1 on 3 situations.

An example of a game where such a scenario happend is the
game between Djurgarden and Leksand on Oct.3. Djurgarden outshot Leksand 21-6 in the two first
periods, but were still down 1-3. The final score was 2-5 inspite of Djurgarden having 32
shots on goal and Leksand only 13. One of the keys to success for Djurgarden is that goalie
Tommy Soderstrom (formerly with the Flyers and Islanders) is at his best and ready to face
many odd-man attacks.

So far after 13 games, the result has been satisfying. Djurgarden has scored a league-leading Read more»

Top Prospects

  1. William Nylander
  1. Anton Karlsson
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