Elitserien: Quarter final preview

06 Mar 2013 | Fredrik Pålsson

Eurohockey.com takes a quick look at the quarter finals in Elitserien.

The quarter finals of Elitserien will see a replay of last year's final between Skellefteå and Brynäs. Last year's champions Brynäs has had a hard season and almost missed the playoffs but grabbed the eight place. Skellefteå won the regular season and chose to play Brynäs in the quarter finals. Skellefteå with many good offensive threaths like Bud Holloway and Joakim Lindström (first and third in league scoring) are big favourites in this quarter final.

It has been quite silent around Färjestad this season but still they finished second in the regular season and chosed to play MoDo who finished seventh after a bad end to the season. Färjestad is always good in playoffs and should be favourites here against MoDo who really needs to improve their form. Two players to look out for in this quarter final is Färjestad's Alexander Salak who perhaps is the best goalie of the league and Chris Lee who was the top scoring defender.

One again Luleå was the best defensive team of the regular season. Last year Luleå went out in the quarter finals after winning the regular season, can they do better against Frölunda this year? Frölunda has been uneven but can win this if they reach their top level. The best goalie wins the quarter final?

HV71 and Linköping will play in the fourth quarter final. It feels like a wide open story. HV71 has a stronger team but Linköping has some great individual skills with three of the top seven scorers in the league. Carl Söderberg, Pär Arlbrandt and Simon Hjalmarsson.