With just three matches to go in the regular season of the SDHL, Luleå and MODO Hockey have had a perfect penultimate week taking a maximum of 9 points each. But it is still advantage Luleå who need just one point to secure the series for the fourth year in a row.
Both teams will meet third placed Linköping HC and fourth placed HV71 on home ice at the end of the week.
But before that on Wednesday 30 January MODO travel to Luleå in what could be the regular season decider. MODO won their last contest at the Coop Norrbotten Arena and both teams will not just be thinking of the regular season but the forthcoming playoffs, where the two could meet again in the final.
Apart from the series table there is also the matter of the top points scorer, where MODO’s Canadian forward, Michela Cava currently leads with 58 points with Luleå’s Finnish duo of Jenni Hiirikoski (56 pts) and Michelle Karvinen (55 pts) plus Swedish international, Emma Nordin (54 pts) hot on her heels. Literally every point will count, but Karvinen will probably not win the title again as she did in 2017/8. That because she received a four match suspension for Checking to the Head on Wednesday leaving her only available for the last match of the season.
Discipline maybe be one of Luleå’s weakness. Last week back Johanna Fällman scored the infamous Gordie Howe hattrick against Göteborg HC. This week, 27 year old forward Emma Nordin was not content with a goal and an assist and decided to equal her teammate’s feat.
So when Brynäs IF’s Wilma Carlsson pushed Ebba Berglund into the boards at 52:13, Nordin for no obvious reason chased down the 17 year old and pushed and punched her until the referees and teammates calmed her down. Carlsson got two x 2 PIMs for the Illegal Hit and Roughing and Nordin got 2 + 2 PIM for Fighting - plus a You Tube clip in her honour that you can see below.
Four minutes rest seem to both of them good and Nordin and Carlsson returned to the ice with less than four minutes left both of them found the net before the siren sounded for the end of the game which Luleå won 6-1 against a Brynäs who have had a dismal year, losing eight out of nine matches in 2019.
But Luleå look certain to clinch another series win. The question is will they go on through the playoffs and take the national championship for the third year out of four?
@ABritOnThinIce1
