Stars of Stockholm

U15 and U14 District Championships From Sweden’s Capital City

The Stockholm District playoffs concluded over the weekend, where the top teams in the region battled it out for Swedish youth hockey supremacy. The process for crowning district champions began back in September with Group Play; teams were divided into five pools of five teams each, competing in a round-robin format over the course of three weeks. From there, the top seed in each pool advanced to District-A Playoffs, the second seed placed in District-B, third seed in District-C, fourth in District-D and fifth in District-E.

District Playoffs consisted of a second set of round-robin games, this time featuring the top five teams in the region in District-A, the next five in District-B, and continued through Districts C, D and E.

U15 (2007) District Championships

District-A

The top district among ‘07s consisted of three teams from our World Rankings: No. 5 Nacka HK, No. 6 Viggbyholms, No. 9 Djurgårdens IF, Flemingsbergs IK and Järfälla HC.

Järfälla had a strong showing in the top district, winning three games by four goals or more and producing the top four scorers in the series. Linus Rudslätt Debou led with eight goals and 10 points, while teammates Eric Nilson (nine), Viktor Klingsell (eight) and Isac Harju (eight) followed close behind. However, a hiccup in their meeting with top-ranked Nacka would end their bid at a district championship. Zacharias Berglin and Ruben Westerling combined to put up six points to help Nacka hand Järfälla its only loss of the playoff round in a 7-4 finish. Westerling would finish with seven points, as Nacka won its first three games of round-robin action.

In its final game of the series, Nacka needed to pick up just one point to clinch first place in its matchup against Djurgårdens. Goals from Jakob Görnebrand and Georgia Cservjacsenko gave DIF a 2-1 lead at the halfway point of the game though. Teodor Friberg knotted the game a 2-2 from the blue line, and Rasmus Lindström Calland and Olle Sjöstedt would continue the scoring for Nacka late into the game. A goal from Djurgårdens forward Kean Tollet would tie the game at 4-4 with 3:29 left to play, but Nacka would escape the contest with the one point they needed in the standings to finish in first place.

District-B

No. 2-ranked Täby HC headlined this group of five which also included IFK Tumba IK, Solna SK, Trångsunds IF and Vallentuna Hockey.

After four games, Solna, Täby and Trångsunds would all finish with a 3-1-0 record and nine points in the standings for a three-way tie for first place. Each of the three teams maintained a win over one and a loss of the other, only furthering the deadlock at the top. Solna’s plus-15 goal differential was enough to break the tie and crown them the winners of the series. Their leading scorer, Mattias Nyberg, led all skaters with nine goals and 11 points in four games.

Melvin Novotny, Liam Redstedt and Theo Stockselius were the most dominant trio in pool play, combining to score nine of Täby’s 23 goals and each of them finishing among the top five in points.

District-C

They came in as the highest-ranked team in the District, and No. 7-ranked AIK took care of business. Allowing just two goals against in the four-game series, Regnars Capars posted two shutouts in their two biggest games; a 3-0 victory over SDE and a 1-0 win over Tyresö Hanvikens SK. Hampus Persson and Hugo Håkansson combined to stop 30-of-32 shots, splitting time in the other two contests, as AIK finished the weekend with a 4-0-0 record and the maximum 12 points in the standings.

Torkel Jennersjö was the leading scorer of the District, with six goals and seven points for second-place Mälarö Hockeyförening.

District-D

Hässelby Kälvesta HC dominated District-D, scoring 25 goals in just four games to finish 4-0-0 and first place in the standings. Boo HC and Huddinge IK would end up in second and third respectively, but provided little resistance to Hässelby’s high-powered offense. Both opponents would fall to the eventual champion by a score of 8-4, with Artur Yanchalouski and Camilo Lovell proving to be unstoppable with 19 points and 17 points respectively. The dynamic duo accounted for 80 percent of their team’s offense, with no other player producing more than five points over the weekend.

District-E

The first game of the series would prove to be the deciding one in a matchup between Älta IF and IFK Österåker Vikings HC. They wouldn’t know it at the time — the two teams shared the ice on Friday — but they would eventually end up finishing first and second in the standings.

Österåker jumped out to an early 4-1 lead, but there would be nine total goals scored in the second half of action, as Älta made a strong push but fell to the eventual champion 9-5 in Game 1 of the weekend.

Both Värmdö HC and Göta Traneberg IK took a run at knocking off the Vikings as well, but Österåker found ways to survive not once, but twice, by way of one-goal games 6-5 and 4-3 respectively. Viking forwards Vilgot Rietz (12 points), Atle Kjellnäs (eight) and Vilmer Ytterström (seven) proved too tough to stop, leading the District in scoring and their team to a championship.

U14 (2008) District Championships

District-A

In a District that was expected to be tightly contested and close and ’08s, consisting of five teams that all won their Groups to reach the A Playoffs, one team still proved to be dominant amongst the best.

SDE HF Svart went unbeaten against the group of top teams, out-scoring Djurgårdens IF, Göta Traneberg IK Röd, IFK Täby HC and AIK by a 23-5 margin in four games. It started with a 6-1 win on Friday, and two more six-goal games on Saturday, and finished with a statement, 5-0 shutout in the final game.

Defenseman Alexander Command and center Marcus Nordmark tied for the District lead with eight goals and 13 points each. Nordmark was part of an impressive trio for Täby, alongside Viggo Björck and Max Johannesén who combined to score 15 of their team’s 20 goals. Command, on the other hand, achieved an impressive feat of his own as the only defenseman to lead his District in scoring.

District-B

Nacka HK won District-B convincingly, going 3-0-0 and finishing with a six-point cushion in the standings. A close call with Boo HC could have completely changed the outcome of the final placements, as Nacka held off a late comeback to win its final game 3-2 on Sunday.

A balanced offensive attack fueled Nacka to a championship. David Holst led his team — and all scorers — with four goals and five points, and was one of nine players to account for Nacka’s 18 goals.

District-C

Despite losing to second-place Brinkens IF on Sunday, Väsby IK HK was able to hang on to its first-place billing and rack up nine points in the standings to Brinkens’ seven.

Dorotea Forslin completed a 20-save shutout in Väsby’s 4-0 game on Friday. The offense then roared to life in its second game, with a hat trick from defenseman Adam Pawel Kubat in an 8-2 drubbing of Tyresö Hanvikens SK. Pawel Kubat finished second in the division in scoring with four goals and seven points. Teammates Mille Forslund and Troy Zajac added six and five points respectively to help Väsby to its first-place finish.

District-D

In one of the most commanding performances from District Playoffs, the Haninge Anchors won their four-team District-D with a 3-0-0 record and impressive 23-2 goal differential. Back-to-back 6-1 wins over Älta IF and Sollentuna HC, then an 11-0 win over Vallentuna, and Haninge took the District convincingly.

Anchors forwards finished one, two, three and four in scoring with Albin Hurtig (eight points), Emil Forslund (seven), Robin Horn (five) and Andreas Tingshagen (five). Jonathan Bylund Lundberg was in net for all three victories, posting a .931 save percentage in playoffs.

District-E

It was the first game of the series, but it proved to be a good one, as eventual first-place finisher and eventual second-place finisher Lidingö Vikings HC and Värmdö HC skated to a 6-5 finish on Saturday.

Värmdö jumped out to a 5-3 lead just past the halfway point of the game, with two goals and an assist from the team’s leading scorer, Melwin Lundberg Bergström. However, Lidingö would rattle off three consecutive goals in the span of just two minutes and 10 seconds of game action from Ludvig Malmström, Hugo Friberg and Charlie Eriksson Hedin to roar back to a 6-5 lead and the win.

That victory eventually led to a District championship as the Vikings won their next three games by a margin of 26-1.Tibor Baran’s nine goals and 12 points led all skaters in the District as well.

Want more coverage of the biggest tournaments, showcases and events from the world of youth hockey? Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok for the latest on American, Canadian, Scandinavian, European and Russian youth hockey.