Emma Nordin continued her hot streak in an exciting Luleå win over Skellefteå.
Emma Nordin continued her hot streak in an exciting Luleå win over Skellefteå.
Skellefteå approached this game as they have all others this season: boldly. Newly promoted teams are not supposed to threaten the status quo. Newly promoted teams are supposed to struggle, to be satisfied to stave off relegation. In Skellefteå, however, GM Ulrika Dahlgren has put together a team that refuses to follow the script. The squad finds itself sitting in sixth place, ahead of Brynäs, Djurgården, Leksand and HV71. They skate hard. They block shots. They body check and score and they make every team, even mighty Luleå, earn their points.
Luleå looked almost surprised by Skellefteå’s intensity in the game’s opening minutes, as they allowed the upstarts to possess the puck for long stretches. The reigning champions, who are never asleep for long, were revived midway through the period when Emma Nordin scored her fifth in six games. Nordin’s goal looked strikingly similar to one that she scored on Sunday against Brynäs: stickhandling with her head up, she cut into the right circle and snapped a hard shot through traffic.
Down 1-0 in the second period, relentless Skellefteå went back to work: corralling a loose puck in the offensive zone, a quick pass was made through a seam to Berggren at the point. She released a hard low wrist shot, and the rebound was swatted in by a hovering Mikayla Lantto. Game tied 1-1. Defensively, goaltender Camryn Drever stood tall (often literally, sometimes even jumping to headbutt high shots), displaying excellent patience as she battled through screens and smothered puck after puck. Drever’s footwork is impressive in its efficiency: she moves exactly as much as she needs to, no more, no less. Her feet are quiet, her shuffles precise and clean. Despite Luleå outshooting their opponents 19-6 in the period, the teams went to their dressing rooms tied.
In the third period, Luleå finally broke the deadlock: Vivii Vainikka displayed her world class skating and puck protection, beating her defender with multiple cutbacks in the corner before driving low. The puck squirted to the high slot where Erica Reider stepped up and put her full weight behind a slap shot, scoring past Drever to give Luleå a 2-1 lead. When a lineup has players who can get pucks to the net (and Luleå has them in droves, including Hiirikoski, Nordin, Shiga, Johansson and Reider), and players who have developed the skill of and love of playing netfront (Magwood, Nieminen, Hunt, Vainikka), you get a team that is always a threat to score. Skellefteå and Drever resisted valiantly and showed the reigning champions little respect, but were overwhelmed in the end, as Luleå earned the victory. The teams meet again next Tuesday in Luleå; expect another highly entertaining game.