From 3 February Scandic Hotels have opened up for a new opportunity for elite women's athletes to work at the same time as women alongside their involvement in a variety of sports including football, ice Hockey, handball and basketball.

The Swedish national sports' federation have been working together with Scandic to design a job that to give the athletes flexible terms and conditions to allow them to combine work, training and matches.

"The SDHL are very positive, together with Scandic and the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation (SIF), to be part of this project which gives players the opportunity to combine an elite career and work in the best possible environment. It is a step in the right direction for both the girls and the league to be even better," said Angelica Lindeberg, above, the commercial manager at SDHL, who is also the team manager at Djurgården IF women's hockey team.

If you want to apply for a job with Scandic you need to be verified by the SIF who can be contacted via email: elitidrott@swehockey.se

For more information look at the SDHL website (in Swedish only).

As predicted by @A Brit On Thin Ice before the tournament began, Sweden's Gothenburg Frölunda Indians won a fourth title in the Champions Hockey League in the Czech Republic on Tuesday.

As usual, the club did not make it easy for themselves going down 1-0 to a brilliant goal at 6:53 from Mountfield HK's, Petr Koukal, with the fully packed stadium going completely wild as they sensed an upset in their first ever appearance beyond the group stages in the European competition. The 37 year old Czech international and Olympian has also played for five seasons in the KHL.

But the defending champions responded in typical fashion scoring three goals in just four minutes at the of the first period with St Louis Blues drafted Simon Hjalmarsson, Anaheim Ducks drafted Max Friberg and New York Islanders drafted Johan Sundström doing the damage.

Frölunda's undrafted American Ryan Lasch was again the competition's top points scorer with 22 points (6G+22A). However, it was former Färjestad BK, player Milan Gulas who took the prize for the top goal scorer with eight for Czech club, HC Pilzen. Meanwhile Mountfield HK, netminder Marek Mazanec, who was drafted by the Nashville Predators, took the prize for the most saves with nearly 300 as well as gaining the most shutouts, with three in the tournament.

The question remains whether Frölunda can repeat the CHL/ SHL double from last year.

They currently lie in third place in the SHL, 11 points behind league leaders, Luleå HF and Lasch is the league's fifth highest scorer with 32 points (10G+22A). With just over a month to go, the Gothenburg team will have no fear of meeting the league leaders in a playoff situation in the SHL, having already outclassed the Norrbotten team with their semi-final victory over Luleå in the CHL.

If Frölunda can continue in this form they have shown in the CHL in the playoffs in Sweden, they could well take a second title in a row. And if that is the case, it would surely place manager Roger Rönnberg's time at the club as one of the most successful in Swedish hockey history.

American Dominique Kremer is one of the new recruits at Stockholm Djurgården IF, who brought in a number of new signings in the summer of 2019 designed to develop a team capable of win the SDHL. Coming to the end of the regular season they are guaranteed a top four spot and are only the playoffs away from realising that dream.

Whilst the club's big name signing, Jennifer Wakefield (CAN), was already in Sweden, Kremer has come direct from the NCAA. However, she is already making her presence felt as the team’s top scoring defender (5G+11A) putting her at number 8 in the back scoring league. But she is modest in her assessment saying she doesn’t think her strengths lie in being a two-ways defender:

“I’m not super flashy, but I can almost always get the job done. I try to make the smart and simple plays that put my team in the best position to be successful. I’m best known for my speed, my hockey sense, and my ability to block shots.”

So whilst Wakefield, Sarah Bujold (CAN) and captain Andrea Dalen (NOR) keep the goals coming in at one end of the ice, Kremer and her college teammate and netminder, Samantha Ridgewell (CAN), are keeping the scores low behind the blue line.

Both her and Ridgewell played in the NCAA at Merrimack College, Massachusetts before moving to Stockholm this season. But the 22 year old American could have gone to play in the NWHL after being drafted in 2018 in Round 4 #17 by Connecticut Whale, the former team of HV71's Swedish forward, Michelle Löwenhielm.

Kremer again is self effacing when it comes to experience:

“Being drafted was a dream come true. I was told prior to the draft that it was unlikely that I would be chosen. Thus, I was shocked when my name was announced! I remember seeing my name and squealing with joy! I was completely honored and humbled by the entire experience.”

But the 22 year old decide to come to Sweden instead, just like 2017 Round 1 #2 drafted Kennedy Marchment (CAN) did last year. That's because Kremer feels the SDHL offers the best opportunities for women's league hockey:

"The skill level is incredibly high, not just from the Swedish players but from the import players brought in, as well." and then she adds with a laugh, "Plus, who wouldn’t want to live in Sweden?"

Djurgården IF have gone all in, bringing together a team to match the best in the league. There’s no hiding the club's ambition to see a repeat of 2016/7 when the Swedish national trophy came the Stockholm club under Jared Cipparone (read interview with Cipparone here). And Kremer is loving the experience of being inside a motivated and energetic squad,

"This year’s team is special simply because of the girls we have here. They are honestly the sweetest, kindest, most genuine, most driven, and most hard working people I have ever met. The team chemistry we have is awesome. Everyone gets along, and everyone supports each other. We’re all striving for the same goal and are willing to do just about anything to achieve it. They make me want to be a better player and person every day, and I can only hope that I do the same for them."

As a women's hockey player from North America, Kremer knows first hand that the sport is going through a challenging time.

"Obviously, I wish that women could make as much money as the men do. It would be nice to be able to play hockey for a living. That being said, I understand that at this point in time women do not bring in the kind of money that men do. It is ultimately boiled down to supply and demand, and women’s hockey is not super high in demand right now".

But just like a Brit On Thin Ice, Kremer believes the women's game has a lot to offer, "The women’s game is much more entertaining than most people think, and I believe if more people saw us play, they would realize what they were missing out on. I really just want people to give a women’s game a shot. Come to a couple of games and give us a chance... you might find out you love it and come back for more!"

A Brit On Thin Ice couldn't agree more.

When it comes to the sports industry success breeds success. And with Kremer and Djurgården with a great chance to medal in this year's SDHL, more fans should be interesting in coming to Hovet and seeing them. After all, as Kremer herself says, this is the best women's hockey league in Europe and, arguably, the best in the world today.

Love played a significant role in AIK current trainer, Jared Cipparone’s move from native Canada to Sweden – perhaps not surprising considering he was born on Valentine’s Day.

The early days: from player in Canada to manager in Sweden

Whilst at Carleton University he played in USports having already played in the Ontario Hockey League as a junior. There he met Alexandra Palm and after graduation they decided to move to her home town, Stockholm in Sweden and both pursue careers as pro hockey players.

Alexandra Cipparone, as she is now called since they got married in the summer of 2016, played with Segeltorp IF, the dominant team in the early days of the SDHL, winning the league with the team in 2010/1. She even captained the team before moving on to Djurgården IF.

Meanwhile, Jared worked his way up from Division 2 to Division 1 playing for different Stockholm clubs. But when his team had financial problems, he was not sure he wanted to go back to the lower division.

At the same time, he happened to be a one of Alexandra’s practices when they needed an Assistant Coach. Without thinking much about it he signed up only to find out later that the Head Coach had quit, “I kinda fell it… and I’m still there,” he laughs.

The move to Djurgården

Segeltorp IF where relegated in 2012/3 and the club was taken over to become Djurgården IF’s first ever women’s team. Both Alexandra and Jared decided to take up the new opportunity at Djurgården, who started in the Division 1 but with clear ambitions to go up to the SDHL.

Success was just around the corner for the Stockholm team and the duo played their part – Jared as Head Coach and Alexandra as captain in her final two years as a player.

“The women’s game has changed drastically since I got involved,” he reflects,” I mean, at every level – the shooting, the skill level, everything. Even if you compare the SDHL to last season, there’s no easy games anymore, anyone can win,” he says in an upbeat tone.

That has not always been the case and that moves us on to talking about one of the greatest upsets of SDHL history.

In 2016/7 Djurgården IF, with Jared at the helm, won the championship in an era that has been otherwise dominated by Luleå/ MSSK and Linköping HC.

“In hockey, you also need a bit of luck, and HV71 took out Luleå in the semis. It was a real team effort, something that was building all year. I think we learn a lot from losing to Linköping the year before. But we beat them in the semi after three matches and that gave us great confidence in the final, we knew we could go all the way and win.”

Understandably, it was one of the highlights of Jared’s managerial career which he was also able to share with Alexandra who captained the championship winning team.

Olympic highs and lows

He may have fallen into club management by accident, but becoming assistant manager for the Swedish Olympic team was also a major career highlight that found him rather than that he desperately reached out for it.

“Leif Boork just phoned me up one day and said would I like to come to an international tournament. I had been at Djurgården three years and was not intending to carry on. Before too long I was behind the bench at the Olympics!” he says, still as though he can’t believe his luck.

But the results from the Pyeongchang Olympics were a great disappointment as the national team came seventh out of eight nations in the tournament. “It was really tough on the girls,” he says, “The mental side of the game was tough – there’s a lot of pressure. In the end, success was not really on their side”, he reflects with a manager’s skillful ability to not overplay the situation.

Back to club hockey at AIK

We turn finally to Jared’s current role, manager for the second year in AIK. Alexandra is no longer a player or manager alongside him as in the national team and the couple have a one year old daughter, Holly.

But whilst home life is very different, on the ice Jared is still the same, he’s again managing his team to greater success.

The club currently sit in 5^th place at the top of group of four teams that make up a second echelon in the table. This is the club's best finish since 2016/7 and is a great improvement on last year’s 8th place.

And that without a huge amount of changes from last year or imports. “I think we’ve got a stable base of long-term players”, he says about the squad, “This year we’re building on what we did last year. The team has got used to me and my style of play and we brought a few players in key positions, to fill the gaps”.

There’s no doubt bringing in three internationals in the shape of the experienced Fanny Rask, one of Sweden’s top forwards from HV71, scoping Finland’s second netminder, Meeri Räisänen from Connecticut Whale as well Japanese international defender, Sena Suzuki from Toronto Furies were all smart signings.

That said, “winning is something you have to learn,” he says philosophically. “Last year we had a lot of close matches that we lost. This year we’ve got a team of winners - and that’s not just down to the new players, but to everyone stepping up. We’re staying in games, even when we’re down, and not getting frustrated.”

And Jared reveals a little bit more about his current coaching philosophy at AIK, “One thing that’s changed this year is that we’re minimising the information we give to the players, trying to give them more freedom,” he explains. “It’s not so much about “I’m in the wrong position”, but about adaptability, “how do I get into the right position?”.

The results seem to show the new approach is working.

Whilst they have brought in imports, they are still the club with the most Swedish players in the league. “No, we haven’t had a “policy” to just have Swedish players. But obviously we try to choose Swedish girls first and our long-term goal is to improve Swedish hockey. But having imports in the SDHL also improves the quality of play.”

We finish by looking ahead to the playoffs, where a medal place will certainly involve beating the top teams like HV71.

But Jared is not daunted by the task, “Anyone can beat anyone in this year’s SDHL, there’s no untouchables. So, we’re going to concentrate on our game, not change everything for the playoffs. I say you’ve got to find your game before the playoffs. This is a work hard team, they forecheck well, are good in the transition and are improving in defense. Each line has its own character”.

It’s clear that Jared believes in his team and with both national success and Olympic experience behind him he’s got every reason to be confident in his methods. He will soon be 34 years and can be sure he will do all he can to steer this talented and improving team towards his second, and the club’s third, SDHL championship.

HV71 win regular season

A year is along time in hockey and this weekend, when HV71 beat MODO Hockey 10-0 in back to back meetings away in Örnsköldsvik, the difference between the 2018/9 and 2019/20 could not be more clear.

Even the HV71 men’s team seems inspired by the women, winning yesterday’s match against Färjestad BK with an impressive goal production, running out winners, 8-4!

MODO Hockey

Last year MODO were in second place by the end of the season with the league’s top scorer in their team, Canadian and former Toronto Furies, Michela Cava. Arguably, had they not lost import players to injury (like Brooke Boquist who is now at Leksand IF), they could won the league. Instead they went out for the second year in a row to Linköping HC in the semis.

In 2018/9 HV71 were a team with a great keeper in Alba Gonzalo, and one or two outstanding players, particularly the young Finn, Sanni Hakala, but in the end were not a team that threatened for a medal place.

This year MODO are without Cava or Kaitlyn Tougas, the latter of whom has moved to HV71. This double loss partly explains why they are ninth place, 9 points behind Linköping HC in eighth. It means that unless they win all their games, the Örnskoldsvik club look set to go down into qualification for next year's SDHL against the top teams from Division 1.

Luleå/ MSSK

The Jönköping team, however, sit comfortably at the top of the league table, where they have been all season. Even with four games to go they are 14 points clear of second placed Luleå.

Talk about the difference of a year- this weekend bottom of the table HC Gothenburg visited Luleå for back to back meetings. Whilst Luleå won 5-2 on Friday, on Saturday the visitors forced the Norrbotten team to come from behind and took them all the way to penalties before Jenni Hiirikoski broke the deadlock to take a 2-1 victory.

This showed both the improvement of the west coast team, who were only 13:34 minutes from winning, as well as the vulnerability of the reigning champions.

Times are a-changing at Luleå and their iron grip on the SDHL is weakening. There is a natural change in the top, with 20 year old Petra Nieminen (23G+27A) and 22 year old Ronja Savolainen (18G+20A) taking over as the highest scoring Finns in the team from veterans Michelle Karvinen (29 yrs) and defender, Hiirikoski (32 yrs).

Brynäs and Djurgården

With four games to go, the top four teams in the league are also known with Brynäs IF and Djurgården IF in third and fourth behind HV71 and Luleå, although the final places of teams 2-4 could yet change.

HV71 are certainly the favourites to win, but it is would be unrealistic to write off any of these four who could all take the title given their performance on the season so far. It will come down to who can adapt best to the demands and tensions of playoff hockey.

Positions 5 to 8

Positions 5-8 are currently held, in descending order by AIK, SDE, Leksand IF and Linköping HC. However, with just nine points between them there is still potential for great change in the final games.

The SDHL is much more even this year, so it is also possible that one of these teams could cause and upset in the playoffs and unseat one the top four. That said, A Brit On Thin Ice does not think that any of these teams have got the firepower or momentum, to win the final should they get that far.

Top scorers

One thing that is almost certain is that Brynäs IF forward, Swiss striker, Lara Stalder will finally win the Total Points and Most Goals trophies. She currently has 65 points (41G+24A), 9 points ahead of HV71’s Canadian star, Kennedy Marchment (pictured). Stalder’s 41 goals in 32 games is truly astounding, giving her an average of 1.28 goals per game, or to put it another way, that in every four games she will score five goals. Impressive!

Linköping HC

Both players were at Linköping HC last year, as well as 2019/20's current top scoring back, American Sidney Morin (also HV71). The Östergötland team must wonder what has happen to them - their top scorer this year, American forward, Zoe Hickel has just 21 points (8G+13A) putting her at number 31 in the Total Points table.

They will face MODO Hockey at home in the last match of regular season. It was probably planned by the organisers to be head-to-head match of two of the best teams in the league prior to the playoffs. Instead, it may end up as a scrap for who do not want to be the relegation zone.

As I said, a lot can change in a year.

Frölunda Indians continue to show why they are the Champions Hockey’s League’s most successful team, taking themselves to a fifth final in the competition’s six year old history.

They will face Czech opponents in the final for the first time since 2015/6, in the shape of Mountfield BK. The home team put pay to the possibility of another all Swedish final in the CHL by dumping out Djurgården IF by an impressive 6-1 on aggregate.

Frölunda again took the difficult route to the final, going into tonight’s deciding match in Luleå with a 2-3 deficit having been outplayed by the SHL league leaders in Gothenburg last week.

And when Luleå HF scored first to stretch their lead to two goals through the ever present Finn, Juhani Tyrväinen at 13:41 it seemed a repeat on the 2014/5 CHL final might be on the cards with the Norrbotten team coming out on top.

But in the second period the visiting Indians do what they do best - come from behind and take an unlikely victory.

One of the key architects of that was 37 year old captain, Joel Lundqvist. Whilst he may have been their most penalized player, sitting out for six minutes in total, he was a key part of their crucial game changing second period goal when he deftly flicked the puck to New York Islanders drafted Rhett Rakhshani to net on the powerplay at 30:59. He was also the goalscorer of the equalizing goal at 43:19 with a beautiful deflection in front of Luleå netminder, Joel Lassinantti.

Luleå are great on defense and for almost two hours managed to put a lid on Frölunda’s diminutive playmaker, Ryan Lasch so that he was barely noticeable. But the undrafted American was able to do what all great players do - make a difference in one split second when it counts. And at 50:35 he took the puck just at the top of the left hand circle, shifted to the left to beat his man and shot the puck past the Luleå minder up into the net.

Mountfield will be able to look at the match videos and see how to neutralize Frölunda, but the question still remains if they can do it for long enough to prevent the Swedish team taking their fourth CHL trophy at five attempts when the two teams meet in the Czech Republic on 4 February.

Brynäs IF are rising stars in the SDHL, have bought a team in the summer of 2018 to challenge at the top of the women's hockey league. Sitting in third before today's match they could take second place away from visiting Luleå/ MSSK if they won.

This top of the table clash was played by 11 of the league's top 16 scorers. But it was the current champions who put on a powerful display to humiliate the young pretenders, who were on home ice. Luleå did it primarily with a third period where they scored three goals without reply to win the game 2-7.

Brynäs got goals through their newly bought stars - drawing level through former Toronto Furies' Michela Cava at the end of the first period at 1-1. Then reducing the deficit to just 2-3 with c. 5 minutes to go in the second period through the league's top scorer and Swiss international, Lara Stalder.

But it was the Finnish pairing of forward, Michelle Karvinen and defender, Ronja Savolainen who, almost single-handedly, destroyed the Gävle team today.

The 29 year old forward has missed nine league matches, as well as an international duty for an undisclosed injury. But Karvinen was back to the kind of form that won her the SDHL top scorer's prize three years in a row from 2015/6-2017/8 with 2G+2A.

Meanwhile the 22 year old Savolainen was involved in all three of the team's final period goals with 1G+2A as she chases HV71's US Olympic Gold medalist, Sidney Morin for the top scoring defender of the year competition.

HV71 remain at the top of the SDHL, but Luleå showed the kind of form which makes them a likely bet to be joining the Jönköping team in the final in a few months time.

On Monday 9 December, the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) announced that Russia would be banned from competing in "all major sporting events” for the next four years, therefore including in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. The announcement follows the failure of the Russian Anti Doping Agency (RUSADA) to comply with WADA's standards in January 2019. The Russians have the possibility of contesting the ruling through the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Sochi

Allegations of Russian doping practices have been widespread since the 2014 Sochi Games where the country was accused of mounting a blanket doping campaign among its athletes and using sophisticated cover up techniques to hide performance enhancing drugs (PED) usage.

Doping in Olympic ice hockey

At Sochi the country’s sixth place in the women’s ice hockey competition was removed from the record books when seven of the team were accused of doping during the Oswald's Commission investigation into Russian doping at the Games. According to InsideTheGames.biz website, two of these athletes returned values that where physically impossible for women to obtain. In the end six players were banned for life from the 2014 squad.

Not that this is the first time that hockey players have been banned from the Winter Olympics for PED use. According to figures from Wikipedia, four hockey players have been banned from participating in the Winter Games between 1974-2010.

But Sochi saw an unprecedented increase with three other hockey players being banned apart from the Russians. They included Washington Capitals' defenseman, Niklas Bäckström. The Swede fell foul of a difference in the rules in the NHL, where his sinusitis medication is legal, and the Olympics, which run under WADA’s stricter rules regarding this medication.

Two of the Latvian team were also banned - Ralfs Freibergs, who has played with the Montreal Canadiens AHL team, and Vitalijs Pavlovs who has played the majority of his career at KHL team, Dynamo Kiev. But both players played in the ECHL the season after Sochi proving the old adage that "no publicity is bad publicity" to be true.

The future of Russian Olympic hockey

Gary Bettman has already indicated that, just as in 2018, it seems unlikely that NHL players will take part in the 2022 Beijing Games. But Russians may have the same “get out of jail free card” that was given them in the fallout from the Sochi scandal. That is the possibility for athletes to compete under the neutral Olympic banner.

In Pyongyang the so called Olympic Athletes of Russia (OAR) team came fourth in the women's tournament but won Gold in overtime against the surprise of tournament, Germany, in the men's tournament. The Game Winning Goal was scored by Minnesota Wild drafted, Kirill Kaprizov (in photo, above and re-live his goal at 2:21 in the official highlights video, below).

Further complications may arise with the ice hockey World Championships, players who currently play in the Russian Kontinental Hockey League as well as if the KHL joins the European wide, Champions Hockey League as the ban relates to "all major sporting events".

However, the Euro 2020 football tournament is scheduled to go ahead in St Petersburg as planned, so there appears to be some flexibility in the ruling - which many have already suggested undermines WADA's ban in the first place.

27-year-old, Zoe Hickel, comes from a hockey playing family but describes herself as a regular girl from Alaska, USA who loves the outdoors and cosing down next to the camp fire.

But right now, she’s living with her younger sister, Tori Hickel, in a flat in Sweden’s fastest growing city, Linköping. For the second year in a row the sisters are playing in the same club, but last year it was with the last ever Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) champions, Calgary Inferno.

Growing up Zoe loved skiing as well as hockey. But when it came to taking only one of them seriously it was a no-brainer to choose hockey, “There’s a lot of individual pressure with skiing, but with hockey you get to go through everything as a team, the good and the bad. It’s as individuals come together that everything happens. My best friends have all come out of hockey -it’s a special kinda friendship that you don’t get anywhere else”.

And if you had any doubt about her passion for the sport, you ask her a few questions and watch her face light up, thinking tactics from the off. “Would I be on the same line as Forsberg?” she asks when I ask her which Swedish legend she would rather play in a team with, Peter Forsberg or Henrik Lundqvist? Hickel is a woman who want to play with the best and beat the best.

Her exuberance and experience just flows out of her - not a surprise when you consider in the space of just five years after college she has won the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), the CWHL championship, two World Championship gold medals as well as being the top scoring American in CWHL in 2018/9.

But now she's in Sweden, “I’m really enjoying it, there’s something special about the place and it’s great to share it with Tori - she can show me all the things she loves about it. Of course, Sweden is where I won my first World Championship medal…” she drops into conversation.

That was in 2015 when Hickel had just graduated from the University of Minnesota-Duluth where she was linemates with Sweden and Linköping star, Pernilla Winberg. The plan at the start of the season was to reform the Winberg-Hickel line. But sadly, the veteran has not played a single minute since she was signed off for concussion at the beginning of October.

But Malmö wasn’t the only place Hickel has collected World Championship gold. The second win came in Kamloops, Canada the following year. “To beat the Canadians in Canada with all the fans against you… that was something special,” she says with smile.

The second Gold medal occurred in the same season that Hickel was part of the Boston Pride team that won the NWHL's inaugural Isobel Cup.

But whilst things started well in the NWHL's second year, out of nowhere suddenly all the players pay was cut, “It was really tough,” she said, “But who can play for a club like the Metropolitan Riveters if they can’t actually earn enough to live in New York?” she points out getting to the crux of the crisis within women’s hockey - it's about people who love the sport and want to make it a career with a living wage.

Hickel, and some of the others from the American national team, chose to cross the border and join the CWHL because of the strength and depth of the player pool as well as being able to get regular practice against their biggest rivals, the Canadians.

When her team, Calgary Inferno, won the 2019 Clarkson Cup final against Les Canadiennes du Montreal multiple Olympic and World Championship Gold medallists were on the ice. "We worked hard all year long and you knew you’d beaten the best ranked players in the world. It was a great feeling!” she reminisced, “Then, a week later, we got a call that league had folded. We were in total shock”.

Hickel said that because her husband works in Calgary, they had been thinking of staying put there for a few years, so it was a terrible moment personally, as well as professionally.

The CWHL’s collapsed on 1 May 2019 led directly to the start of the #ForTheGame movement, which was launched the following day. Over 200 players, including Tori and Zoe Hickel, took dramatic action aimed at creating, "a sustainable professional league for Women's Hockey."

With options closed in North America, the invitation to play in Sweden felt like the right thing to do - Tori would return to the country she had played in for two years after graduating from Northeastern College and take her older sister with her for the ride, “I’m 27 years old now!” she laughed, “but hopefully things will sort themselves out for the next generation of players coming through. To be honest, I’m just focusing on the game here at Linköping HC and letting the PWHPA sort things out back home”.

Whilst 25-year-old Tori has played for Djurgården IF, this is Zoe’s first time in the SDHL. “The game’s different here. In North America is was much more north-south, I’m used to a give-and-go game, but here it’s much more about building up play, maybe that’s to do with the extra space”. She says when asked about the differences in the four different leagues she’s played in.

We move onto Linköping’s season, which for players and fans alike has been disappointing with just four regulation wins (at the time of writing) for last year’s runners up.

“We’ve got an optimistic attitude in the group; this is a good team and we’ve got great goaltending at the back. We just need to break down that wall of bad luck - pucks that bounce the wrong side of the net and so on”.

Personally, Hickel has been thinking a lot about her health, “I’ve just come back from five games out, [Isobel] Palm is coming back but Pernilla is out. I’m trying not to put pressure on myself to score masses of goals, I’ve just got to take care of myself”.

Zoe Hickel and Linköping HC could naval gaze and look back on the season that’s gone. But the double world champion knows that things can change fast in hockey – a couple of good results, remaining injury free, a little bit of Lady Luck and a lot of hard work – and this season could still end up with a gold medal around her neck as she has done everywhere else she’s played.

(Hickel wears #36 in the colours of USA in photo, above).

See video of Zoe Hickel’s first international goal for USA during the Gold medal winning 2015 World Cup campaign, below.

Last night in the quarterfinals of the Champions Hockey League three teams from Sweden, three from Switzerland and one a piece from Germany and the Czech Republic remained in the competition.

But by the time the full-time sirens had rung out across Europe all three Swiss teams and the Germans were no longer left, whilst Sweden’s three clubs - Frölunda Indians, Djurgården IF and Luleå Hockey - will all compete in the semifinals alongside the team from the Czech Republic.

Not that it was a foregone conclusion- in three of the games only one goal separated the teams after the first leg on 3 December so all was to play for in the return fixtures.

Djurgården IF alone had a commanding lead after the first leg with a 5-1 win in Stockholm. And they completed the job with ease winning 8-1 in total over last year’s runners up Red Bull Munich.

In the first Swiss-Sweden match up Luleå HF found their way past a spirited Lausanne HC, although the game finishing a convincing 7-3 after the second leg in Sweden.

The other match up between the two nations turned into a CHL classic. Swiss team EHC Biel-Bienne led the match at home 6-4 on aggregate with just 3:58 to go. That was due to two great third period goals from former Edmonton Oilers'Marc-Antonie Pouliot and Austrian international, Peter Schneider. The home team looking set to knockout the current champions.

But Frölunda Indians showed incredible resolve to come back from a two goal deficit, just as they did in the previous round against Farjestad BK.

They sent the game into Overtime through two 6-on-5 goals with their Chicago Blackhawks netminder, Johan Mattson pulled. The gap between the goals was just 29 seconds apart with just 2:31 of regulation left on the clock. They finished off the Swiss when Gothenburg born and bred, Patrik Carlsson, scored in Sudden Death - again with a man advantage on the Power Play. .

The Gothenburg team currently have the competition's top scorer, with undrafted American, Ryan Lasch as well as the top goalscorer remaining in the competition, Samuel Fagemo (pictured). The 2019 Los Angeles Kings drafted Swede who has netted seven times in the CHL and just one more goal will take him to the top of the goal scorers list. They will be in a semifinal that will be a re-run of the first ever CHL final in 2014/5 which was final won by Luleå HF.

Djurgarden will play against Czech team, Mountfield BK, the only non-Swedish side left in the competition. That’s after they shutout EV Zug to complete a miserable night for Swiss club hockey as all three NLA teams crashed out of the competition.

The semi finals will take place on the 7 and 14 January 2020 with Swedish teams Frölunda and Djurgården hosting the first match before the return at Luleå and Mountfield, respectively, the following week.