Weekly Recap: The Redhawks are flying again

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The Malmö Redhawks appear to have gotten out of their slump. In a week where one team played three games, five teams played two games and another four teams played one, the Redhawks turned their lukewarm streak to hot. They first took down HV71 (2-1 Tuesday) before a hot Skåne derby against Rögle awaited. In Ängelholm, Malmö broke a five game losing streak against Rögle by winning 3-2 with Fredrik Händemark scored the game winner in what appears to have been his last game with the team in a while, as he is on his way to the NHL and the San Jose Sharks. With these wins, Malmö now have four straight regulation wins.

Luleå was the other team to win both their games during last week. They did so by beating Oskarshamn twice. On Thursday, they first lost a 2-0 lead to be down 2-4 before winning 5-4 in overtime. Saturdays matchup, that time in Oskarshamn, put IKO in the lead again. But Luleå came back and won pretty comfortably, 5-2. The two wins puts the northernmost located team in the league back in the action in the top of the league, as they now are four points behind Rögle in first place and three points behind Frölunda in second.

Rögle lost both their games in the week, as did Oskarshamn who continue to lose ground in the league. Frölunda was the fourth team that played twice; they lost heavily to Djurgården (1-5) on Tuesday before bouncing back to win 6-1 against Örebro Thursday.

Oskarshamn were the only team playing three games last week and all they managed to do was to extend a losing streak that is putting them in dire straits. Their twelve straight losses are tied for the fifth longest losing streak in SHL history, stretching back to 1975, and is inching closer to their 14 straight losses of last season, which is tied for the second longest streak.

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On the bright side, Oskarshamn forward Rickard Palmberg was the most productive player in the league last week with five points, four of them being assists. And his teammate Brian Cooper was one of four players tied for second with three points. Palmberg was the only player notching four assists in the week. Einar Emanuelsson of Luleå scored three goals in the two games he played this week. He had two on Thursday and one on Saturday. No goalie kept a shutout during the week.

With Christmas around the corner it is about time to look at the overall player standings. Tied for first place, prior to the Monday night game, are Emil Pettersson of Växjö and Carter Camper, Leksand, with 26 points. If both players keep their pace throughout the season, Camper will end up with 58 points and Pettersson with 56, both surpassing Marcus Nilsson´s 54 points of last year. To be fair, Nilsson only played 50 games out of a possible 52. What is noticable is that Marek Hrivik, also Leksand, has 25 points in 17 games. That makes him on pace for 64 points if he plays the remainder of the season, which would mean he'd notch the points in 44 games. The last player to hit the 60 point mark was Derek Ryan, Örebro, in 2014/2015. As for the top teams, Rögle are currently on pace for 108 points, with Luleå on pace for 99. Frölunda are on pace for 94.

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This coming week and a half usually means arenas full of people on December 26, 28 and 30 - all classic hockey dates. But with the Covid-19 pandemic, there will be hockey without crowds. Nevertheless, hockey is to be played. Tonight, Oskarshamn take on Växjö in a Småland rivalry game and with Christmas comes a few days off. The next game day this week is the aforementioned December 26 when five games are scheduled, two of them at 3:15pm and three at 6:00pm Swedish time.