ODENSE, DENMARK – With just a few weeks till we reach the halfway point of the season in Denmark’s top professional men’s league- AL-Bank Ligaen, PHN takes a peek over each of the nine clubs in order of where they are placed in the table to see how they are fairing in a season that has so far been enthralling to say the least.
Part 1 looks at the current top five.
1. SønderjyskE (Vojens)
Overview: The defending league champs are once again off to a cracking start and are slowly but surely pulling away from the rest of the chasing pack. At the time of writing the South-Jutland based outfit has built up a healthy 7 point lead over it’s next competitor AAB Aalborg who they demolished 5-0 on Tuesday, further cementing their title winning credentials. Not only that but SønderjyskE are also among the leagues most balanced team having scored the most goals (71) and conceded the least amount (28). That gives them a goal difference of +43 (the next best GD is +9). Currently Mario Simioni’s men are on run where they have only conceded 1 goal in seven games and the clubs keepers Alfie Michaud and Christian Møller have combined for 8 shutout’s between them, fast approaching the league record of 10 set in 2002 by Derek Herlofsky of then Odense Bulldogs. The club also just recently qualified for the AL-Bank Liga cup final where they will be play Zealand-based club Rungsted Cobras.
Top Import-Dejan Matejic: The 29-year-old Swede is currently the leagues leader in points with 7 goals and 29 points in 19 games. The Frolunda native has spent most of his early career in the Swedish Allsvenskan (second-tier) before moving to Denmark in the 03-04 season, where with the exception of the following year has played ever since.
Writer’s prediction: 1st Place
2. AAB (Aalborg)
Overview: After a disastrous season last year where the team finished third bottom, the North Jutlanders have so far put together a decent season in which they are actually meeting the fan expectations (which is out of the ordinary). Karsten Arvidsen’s red army has been tremendous on home ice where they have only been defeated three times in all League & Cup games. AAB traditionally have always had a team on paper that could challenge for silverware but more often then not repeatedly seem to disappoint having not won the league since 1981 but finished a record nine times as runners-up. This year’s AAB team have showed tremendous team character and resilience which is atypical of a team managed by Arvidsen but even the 42- year-old would have never quite witnessed a comeback like the one he did when his side took on the Odense Bulldogs in a game which saw his troops rally from 6-0 down to take home a 7-6 shoot-out victory! A similar feat was to be seen a few games later when they ran out 6-5 victors over Esbjerg. The Aalborg based team has scored the second most goals in the league (64) but have conceded the fifth most (53) raising questions over the team’s defensive set-up.
Top Import-Paul Deniset: Although the 28-year-old missed four games because of injury the native of Winnipeg has still has managed to rack up 19 points in 15 games and has not looked out place in his first season in Denmark after coming over from the Belfast Giants of the British Elite League. His 11 goals are tied for the team lead which he shares with talented Dane, Lasse Lassen.
Writer’s prediction: 2nd place
3. Frederikshavn White Hawks (Frederikshavn)
Overview: The White Hawks have been this years surprise team. Traditionally one of the leagues more lower budgeted clubs many experts including it’s own fan base had them ranked much lower in their predicted league rankings, but these young Hawks have been nothing but a revelation this year. The league’s most Northern-based outfit is compromised of mainly local home grown players and only possess a total of just three imports, one of which has applied for Danish Citizenship after having been part of the team since the early part of this decade. Henrik Christiansen’s men have been a tough lot to handle for many clubs this year due to their extremely disciplined and compact play. A team that is full of talented youngsters will always have that never-say-die attitude and that trait most certainly can be attributed to Frederikshavn. The North-Jutlanders have the second-least amount of penalty minors in the league (89), second to only powerhouses SønderjyskE and that disciplined play has been key to their surprising success they have had so far in this campaign. Their strong defensive play is also backed up with the amazing play they are receiving from their young 20-year-old Danish net-minder Frederik Andersen who’s save percentage of 93% is tops among all goalies who have played 14 games or more, a future Danish no.1 for sure and another key cog in this team.
Top Import-Steve Birnstill: Not only is the 24-year-old American the clubs top point go-getter but with a total 18 points from 17 games to his name he is also the league’s top point-producing defenceman. The signing of Birnstill last year was a bit of a lottery as you never know what you can get signing a player straight out from the NCAA but the American showed tremendous technical skills and ability in his first season in Denmark and became the go-to guy on the PP last year. This year though the Massachusetts native has developed from a steady offensive-d man to the leagues most potent blueline threat.
Writer’s prediction: 4th
4. Herning Blue Fox (Herning)
Overview: No team has undergone a transformation much like the Blue Foxes have. The perennial powerhouses of Danish Hockey have won the championship a total of five times this decade alone and have always boasted a team that has been laden with experienced Danes and imports. Fast forward to this year however and you will see a completely different picture. The Central-Jutlanders have been hit hard by the global economic downturn. The finances of the club were crippled and there was doubt that the powerhouses of Danish hockey will not be able to ice a team this year. Fortunately enough though the club received vital funding before the season started and were able to participate. Since then Danish hockey legend Todd Bjorkstrand and his team have been stifling clubs across their league with their extremely defensive make-up, getting five men behind the puck and pouncing on the counter has been a successful method for the Jutlanders If you could point out one area where the leagues youngest outfit may struggle in that might be scoring goals, the Blue Foxes have scored the third least amount of goals (45) and it’s that combination of Herning’s lack of ability to score goals and the opponents lack of ability to break them and their tremendous Finnish Goalie Joni Myllykoski down that has resulted in the Herning faithful witnessing some low-scoring, close encounters.
Top Import-Joni Myllykoski: The 25-year-old Finnish Netminder is without a shadow of a doubt one the leagues best goalies. The native of Tornio has kept his team in numerous of amount of close games where they have been heavily outshot. Having the best Defence in the league in front of you does help but nonetheless the Fin in his first season outside of his native homeland has brung a shedful of experience that has made the Foxes that much harder to break down as an unit. His play with will very much determine the extent of the success that the young Foxes will have this year.
Writer’s prediction: 3rd
5. Rødovre Mighty Bulls (Rødovre)
Overview: The Mighty Bulls got of to a tremendous start this year coming out of the gates flying by winning 7 of it’s first 8 games. It started to look like the Zealanders might actually have what it takes to challenge for the honours this year with a fairly mediocre looking squad. However things started to turn sour quickly. Off the ice the club’s managing director Michael Beskos was fired by the board of directors for alleged corruption and this sent a rift through the teams off-ice management, which most probably affected the players as well. On the ice it wasn’t any better. A terrible November where the team only managed pick up just a total of two wins, coupled with a shaky start to December has left Magnus Sundquist ’s men languishing in a mid-table position after having topped the league a few months before. People will say that this mid-table position that they are currently occupying fit’s Rødovre and that they were never more than a average squad who just overachieved during the early goings of the season. In fairness to the Zealanders though they have had a terrible schedule put together for them. Between the 17th November and the 28th December (a span of six games) Rødovre will not play at home so it’s hard to be entirely critical of them at this stage.
Top Import-Henrik Blomqvist: The 25-year-old Swede has amassed 13 points in 15 games good for fourth best in the team. Despite his age the Stockholm native is a relatively experienced hockey player having played just under 100 games in the Allsvenskan league. A product of the Malmo junior academy, Blomqvist first made the move abroad from Sweden to play two years in the top Norwegian league for Stjernen where he then moved to Denmark to suit up for Odense and AAB respectively. Last year the 5ft11 Swede returned home but failed to make much of an impact only picking 5 points in 19 games for Bofors in the Swedish Allsvenskan. This is the third Danish team he has played for since making his debut in the league in the 2006-07 season.
Writer’s prediction: 5th
Contact: Sandro.berish@prohockeynews.com
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