Wennerholm after Färjestad’s win against Djurgården

Of: Mats Wennerholm

Published: Dec 26, 2020 at 5:57 p.m.

Day 2 hockey has become as big a Christmas tradition as Kalle Anka on Christmas Eve.

And there I could see another Disney classic: the great mischievous wolf.

Färjestad’s Jacob Petersson chased Djurgården almost alone when the Värmlands won 5-2.

I’m glad the second day of hockey started with the classic Färjestad-Djurgården.

No other SHL meeting is brimming with such tradition.

And although there are 320 km between Stockholm and Karlstad, it is one of SHL’s biggest rivalries.

You can hardly ever go wrong when these two teams meet.

There is a lot of prestige at stake, regardless of whether it is a Swedish Championship final or round 25 of the basic series.

There is always something worth seeing.

Now it was 21-year-old Jacob Petersson from Färjestad who had a magical afternoon when he scored two of the goals and played until the other two.

Petersson, who grew up in Frölunda for a few years, got a loan from Björklöven, but never got the ice age he wanted from the people of Gothenburg.

So before this season, he moved to Karlstad and Färjestad.

And now you seem to be on your way to the breakthrough you’ve been waiting for.

It was a mighty show, where he started by sending up 1-0 on a left center from Niklas Svedberg, serving Adam Ginning the hill to 2-0, making it 3-0 themselves and ending up playing Victor Ejdsell at 4-1.

Talk about putting salt on my wounds, oh!

Now it was all about the fight on the top line of the playoffs, where Djurgården has become a challenger after turning strong after a weak start to the season.

Yes, seen in the last ten rounds, Djurgården was the strongest team in the series.

Now it didn’t help, when Färjestad won for the second time this season after outscoring the Farms 5-0 in the opening match at Löfbergs Arena on November 14.

It won’t be that easy in Hovet, where the next two games of the basic series will be played.

Djurgården is one of the best home teams in the series, but as good as they are at home, they have done so poorly away from home.

Djurgården has only won two of eleven away games this season.

Without that weakness, they would have been a superior team.

“That time feels far away”

At Leksand, two teams met Swedish fans, perhaps more proven.

Rögle went out twice and climbed three times in the 2000s.

And for Leksand, it’s been almost an eternal leap between divisions.

No other team has gone up and up so many times.

But right now that time feels far away.

Rögle is the hottest team in SHL and after a 3-1 win and two goals from Dennis Everberg they moved to the top.

And Leksand fans need not worry, as Leksand still has a real seven-point gap in the bottom line of the playoffs.

I set the alarm clock at 03:30 this morning, just to get ahead of JVM hockey with the main US-Russia match.

The Cold War is over, but it still lives on ice when these teams meet.

Another kind of classic.

Intense days

Yes, there will be intense days in the near future.

JVM, SHL and Hockeyallsvenskan offer hockey basically 24 hours a day.

On Sunday allsvenskan hockey starts with the Timrå-Björklöven summit.

Yes, Mora-BIK Karlskoga started already on matchday two, where the Värmlands won 5-4, after converting 3-4 to victory in the final period.

But Timrå-Björklöven is, of course, the highly prestigious meeting.

They haven’t met since the premiere in which Västerbotten won 4-1 and then went on top.

But then everything changed. Timrå became a victory machine, while Björklöven looked more and more human.

Today is a changed role and it seems like the last chance for Västerbotten to fight for the series win.

If Timrå wins full time, there will be a difference of twelve points and then the midfielders will also have a less played game.

Such a great advantage will be practically impossible to recover.

Published: Dec 26, 2020 at 5:57 p.m.

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