December has finally come, with a flurry of snow as people start to get ready for Christmas celebrations, whether they are commercial - Black Friday, or the religious - First of Advent. And for the SDHL it also marks the halfway point of regular season with most teams having played 20 matches.
Followers of women's hockey in Sweden over the last few years may not be surprised to here that one team is far ahead of the others - but the surprise is that it is no longer Luleå/ MSSK that are dominating - but instead it is Jönköping's HV71 who can do no wrong this year.
They have lost only three matches all season - just one a month - against Luleå HF in September, Djurgården IF and now Brynäs IF in their last game of November. Otherwise, they are on a mission beating anyone, anytime, anywhere.
Just as Luleå have done before in the last four years, HV71 has risen the bar beyond what people thought was possible, blazing a trail that others just have to try and follow.
Nearly 100 goals in 21 matches, that is an average of 4.62 goals per game (!) and a plus/ minus of +61 gives you an idea of the quality you can see in the Kinnarps Arena this year. And it is an internationally diverse set of players - Kennedy Marchment (USA), Sidney Morin (USA), Hanna Olsson (SWE), Kaitlyn Tougas (CAN) and Sanni Hakala (FIN) - who are packing out the top 10 on Total Points. Meanwhile Alba Gonzalo (SPA) is in second on goaltending with 1.55 GAA (pictured, above).
Look out on Tuesday afternoon for an exclusive interview with one of HV71's import players here on Sportbloggare.
Even with half the season to go - anything other than a gold medal in the spring will be a huge disappointment for this team.
Behind them a tight battle for second place is taking place between Djurgården IF, Brynäs IF and Luleå HF. And not surprisingly, these the only teams who have actually been the leading club so far this year.
In fourth at the beginning of December, Luleå HF continue to rely on their core of Finnish internationals, with 20 year old Petra Nieminen leading the way in the absence of Michelle Karvinen. Nieminen at only 20 years old is still young, but is finally stepping into the central role she showed she could take as far back at the 2018 Olympic Games, netting 14 goals in 18 games this season as well as contributing with another 14 assists.
Meanwhile third placed, Brynäs IF, just like the league leaders, have their new cohort of high quality new players to thank for keeping the siren buzzing, led by Swiss international, Lara Stalder. The first European drafted in the NWHL back in 2016, she remains at the top of the Total Points leaderboard with more than 2 Points Per Game average - 41 points (26G+15A) in just 20 games.
Second placed Djurgården IF might not play with as much fireworks in front of net as these other teams, but they're getting the job done, with a more steady goal count and grinding out wins, so that they have the lowest goal difference of this group of four. Their goalscoring is led by none other than one of the SDHL most decorated forwards, Canadian Olympic Gold medalist, Jennifer Wakefield. The former Toronto Furies player is new to the club this year, although she is now 30 years old and has two Swedish championship winning medals to her name.
These four teams, are the new elite of the SDHL - they are the only teams with a positive plus/ minus, the only teams with more wins than losses and are dominate all the other statistics that you can think of.
With HV71 as favourites, it is almost certain that one of these other three teams will face them in the playoff final. The only thing that could change that, I believe, is if one of the clubs in 5th-10th decides to buy in a line of players who are taking a break in North America following the #ForTheGame strike. Linköping HC, for example, brought in a couple of good players in the playoffs last year, in Susanna Tapani (FIN) and Brooke Stacey (CAN) to try to topple Luleå, even if in the end it was unsuccessful.
Only one team with have 2 x 60 minutes to steal the gold from HV71 - they've got circa 20 matches and the playoffs to work out how to shutdown this hugely talented squad from Jönköping.
@ABritOnThinIce1
