Another week of ECL Elite has been played and I don’t think the action thus far has left anyone hanging. We are getting closer to the mid-season point as every team has now played against five or six opponents. This week, the last teams got their first wins of the season but we still got one team without any losses as hREDS won all of their six games this week, continuing undefeated.
When we are talking about hot teams there is no denying that SAWO ESPORTS is one of those. Right now, they are at 2nd place in the standings and have won eight games in a row. They have three losses under their belt but two of those were against hREDS and one against IQUE, equally hot teams. All of those games were one goal games. Goal scoring hasn't been a problem for these young guys as both of their wingers Jere @jxrska Laukka and Valtteri @Vattuyy Virtanen have snuck into the top 5 of goal scorers within the league. Especially @Vattuyy was on fire last week with 13 goals in eight games.
Another team that has just kept improving their game is IQUE. They started the week with full points against Conquer Gaming which isn't that surprising as they are right now manning the last place in the league. After that IQUE had their toughest challenge so far this season against Frölunda HC. A win against them in the other game was already a surprise but IQUE didn't stop there as they managed to get four points against another favorite GOONS. A huge week for IQUE and this week definitely gave them keys to the future. Captain Janne @Nieppii Niemelä showed his leadership for the team by scoring three of five goals against GOONS including the game winning goal in both games.
On the other hand, those games against IQUE were not what GOONS wanted. Those two losses increased their losing streak to four games, as earlier in the week they lost both games to Färjestad BK. The Swedish team is right now in 5th place but their week ended in a loss against YMCA Esports. At the same time Färjestad BK said goodbye to their winning streak which ended up being seven games long. One important factor for them being in good form is definitely their goalie Johan @McSavid Rundqvist who gave them a chance to win in the last game of the week allowing only one goal. Speaking of YMCA Esports, they still have a lot of improvement to make in their game even though they managed to get four points out of another Swedish group, Granit Gaming.
After a bit of a slow start, multiple champion HAVU Gaming is seeming to get back into form. We have to remember that this week their opponents weren't top tier but still, you have to get points from all possible games and that's what HAVU Gaming did as they got their six game winning streak going. An important thing for the future was that Tuukka @FlyerKungen Kuha got much needed success on the goal scoring front with eight goals last week, including two hat-tricks against Northern Ascendancy.
The last four teams in the league right now are Northern Ascendancy, Djurgården Hockey, HV71 and Conquer Gaming. Djurgården Hockey have troubles scoring, only averaging a goal each game. The other three have to find a way to shut their doors as they are getting scored on at a rate of 3.0 goals per game or higher. Out of these team's, we have to mention Daniel @Demski_ Gadd and his performance last week for HV71 as against Roots Gaming. In the first game he scored the overtime winning goal and after that had a hat-trick in the second match.
A big reason for hREDS keeping their winning streak alive this week was Vili @Vilupoika Häkkinen, who scored a total of 11+7=18 points this week and had a 4 goal night against Örebro Hockey. We've also seen two new scoring duos sneak into the top 10. HAVU's Risto @Dominointi Järvi had a good week with together with @FlyerKungen, while SAWO dynamic duo @Vattuyy and @jxrska scored 27 goals combined out of SAWO's 31 in the past week.
Our top 3 is the exact same as last week in terms of defender scoring. Aleksi @loimmu Loimuvirta is still in search of twine in 1st place with 14 assists. Niko @vVoDee Vottonen from Roots Gaming has found a way to put the puck in the net, leading all defensemen with four goals. In 7th place, we can find Fredrik @maharajah2014(sparkaronnberg) Mickelsson-Holm who, besides scoring points also blocked 28 shots which is the most among defensemen by a clear margin. Wille @willekunq Juntunen had a crazy six-point night against Northern Ascendancy, which boosted him a bit, let's see if he can repeat that later on.
Transfers
Granit Gaming
IN Reittu @Roisto999 Hynynen, Goaltender
The first transfer has been seen as Reittu @Roisto999Hynynen went to Granit Gaming. Last season he played in SAWO ESPORTS and has been on the free market until now. The goalie, who has been playing since ECL 4 will bring them a lot of experience and a culture of winning. We will see if he gets games for the Swedish team but one thing is sure that he will be good motivator for Edvin @Thunborg5Thunborg to stop pucks at an even better rate than before.
Recommended Comments
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.