Weekly Recap: Djurgården racking up the wins

With the top three teams in the standings being not changing it is easy to think that not much went down in the past week. But you only have to turn your head towards Stockholm to be proven otherwise. Djurgården completed an almost perfect week, getting eight out of a possible nine points in the three games they played.

In the process, they scored 13 goals and despite having played all games but one without their head coach Robert Ohlsson on the bench during the week. With Ohlsson back on the bench Djurgården completed their week by beating the Växjö Lakers in Växjö on overtime, thus ending the Lakers eleven game win streak at home. The crown jewel to the win was the penalty shot game winner by team captain Jacob Josefson. Not only did Josefson continue his spotless penalty shot streak during the season, he's three for three for penalty shots and one for one in the shootout - the goal was his 100th SHL point.

Despite their loss, Växjö sits third in the league with 52 points, having had five wins in their previous seven games. The Lakers were also one of seven teams winning two games in the week. After a bit of a stealthy move to the top, the Lakers aim to remain there. During the past week, they've also added defenseman Christian Folin and forward Brendan Gaunce, both joining from North America, to their roster. The two are yet to make their Lakers debut.

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Frölunda made their win streak five straight with a 5-2 win against Oskarshamn Sunday, thus completing a new perfect week as well. In the tight battle for first place, Frölunda overtook Rögle and now sits atop with 59 points, two points ahead of Rögle, who got two games in hand.

Among the other teams winning two out of their games, we find Brynäs IF. Brynäs made their return to play after 23 days without having played a single game due to covid within their team as well as a few opponents. But they started on a flyer, by beating Malmö 5-2. After that they travelled to Karlstad and came away with a 3-2 overtime win. On Saturday, perhaps their legs didn't have the energy needed to put up a stand against Leksand. But thanks to an amazing effort by goalie Viktor Andrén, Brynäs got a point in a 5-4 overtime loss, despite being out shot 19 to 61(!), with Andrén making 56 saves - which is among the most saves made by a goalie ever in the SHL.

With Brynäs getting their points, they are now just five points behind Linköping and HV71, both with 27 points. And with four and six games in hand to the respective teams, Brynäs are now within striking distance of making a poor string of results for both Linköping and HV71 turn into a real nightmare. HV71 did manage to get a win this week thanks to a 3-2 overtime victory against Oskarshamn, but came crashing down to Earth again with two straight 4-1 losses to Frölunda and Malmö. Linköping´s woes are getting worse by the day. Two out of their three losses in the week where 5-1 and 5-2 and the third loss, 3-2 to Örebro, they went down 3-0 before finding the right gear. Not only that, they are now on a four game losing streak, with five losses in their past six games to add insult to injury.

Speaking of losing streaks, Oskarshamn surpassed their own "record" from last season of 14 straight losses and are now on a 16 game losing streak, with three more losses added to their books this week. And Färjestad went through their week with three losses as well.

{!B} On the player side of things, there are a few scoring streaks to get to. Anton Rödin kicked off his return to play by scoring twice against Malmö before following that up with one goal against Färjestad and one aginst Leksand, putting him on a three game goal streak. Jack Drury of Växjö scored in every game this week, putting him on a five game goal streak. And after a start, Chris DeSousa are now in full-on scoring-mode with Luleå. DeSousa scored twice against Linköping Saturday and is now on a six game goal streak, during which he's had seven goals to his name. He and Emil Pettersson of Växjö tied for the most points during the week (6).

Turning to this week, we kick off Monday night with three games and there are games to be played on all days but two, with a total of 20 games to be played.