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Last season’s top series winner HV71 beat Luleå in the first final of the Swedish championship and had a match ball in the final series. But the season was canceled due to the corona virus and no winner was crowned.
– The winning skull is incredibly big this season, HV defender Linnéa Andersson told SVT ahead of Saturday’s SDHL premiere.
The team has only lost three players and looks more or less the same as it did during the successful season that ended abruptly.
– I’m very happy that so many have chosen to stay and I think it’s a really revenge-hungry gang that is ready to take on the task, said Linnéa Andersson.
HV71 was played at home against this spring’s last rival, Luleå, directly in the first round. There, the situation was the opposite to that seen in the final of the Swedish Championship in March.
Emma Nordin put the guests 1-0 at the end of the first period, and Nicole Jensen extended at the beginning of the second. Jenni Hiirikoski made sure the score was 3-0 before the third period, where Ebba Berglund determined the final score 4-0 already after one minute and four seconds.
“Brynäs should have the favorite label”
Thus, the HV71 lost a competitive match for the first time since November 30 last year.
Anna Kjellbin, Hanna Olsson and Sanni Hakala were absent from the team due to injuries.
In addition, the team took another break during the match, when Julia Tylke dropped the cut and fell on the ice. Tylke seemed to get to her knees and her teammates quickly called the medical team. Tylke had to be transported across the ice on a stretcher.
At Gävle, the big bet Brynäs was responsible for an overshoot, when they beat Leksand 7-2.
Sporting director Erika Grahm has delivered clear goals for the Swedish Championship gold, and SVT expert Maria Rooth believes already after the first round that this may be the case.
– Brynäs will have the favorite label and most likely they have to do with the gold of the Swedish Championship, says Rooth in the SVT broadcast.
– It was probably not the best game that neither I nor the team did. Brynäs has very skilled players, we are a more hard-working team. They have more lace. So they are very good. But so do we, says Amanda Johansson of Leksand at SVT.
