Skellefteå is celebrating the fourth Swedish championship in its club history. Ten years have passed since the team’s previous championship.
Skellefteå AIK has won the Swedish hockey league SHL championship in the 2023–24 season. The team celebrated the victory over the final opponent Rögle in the fifth game of the series in front of their home crowd.
In the match that decided the championship, the team won with Rögle’s goals 2–0.
The first period was scoreless. In the second set, the striker of the home team Andreas Johnson scored his team’s 1-0 goal with superiority, which was the winning goal from the rest.
The final numbers of the match were 2–0 to an empty net, embellished by the attacker Max Lindholm.
Skellefteå was clearly more advanced in the fifth meeting, as the team shot at Rögle’s goal no less than 39 times in the match, while the away team only shot 19 times.
Saved a draw to Skellefteå Linus Soderstrom was also selected as the most valuable player of the playoffs.
Soderstrom allowed only 1.52 goals per game in the playoffs with a whopping 94.39% save percentage.
The 27-year-old Swedish guard is familiar to Finns from the years 2020–2022, when he blocked pucks in Pori Ässi.
Johnsson, who scored the winning goal and played strong playoffs, broke down in tears in an interview with the Swedish media.
– I can’t believe that we are standing here now as champions, gambler said to TV4.
Team captain Pär Lindholm said that he had been waiting for the championship all his life.
– The victory feels fantastic. This group is so incredibly good and deserves the gold, the captain rejoiced.
Ten years had already passed since the last Skellefteå championship. The club celebrated the championship for the last time in 2014. At that time, it beat Färjestad BK straight in four matches.
Between the championship years, the team was in the finals four times, but lost each time.
The championship was the club’s fourth overall in its history. The previous wins came in 1978, 2013 and 2014.
– Now we celebrate all week, defender of the team Jonathan Pudas said in an interview with Sportbladet.
Rögle’s Finnish defender, who got little playing time in the deciding games Valtteri Viljanen logged a good five minutes of ice time in the fifth game.