It was a huge blow for Djurgården's World Juniors line when the youngsters returned to play on Swedish soil again after winning gold in North America.
Between the gold-medal winners Victor Eklund and Anton Frondell, the much more experienced center Marcus Krüger played. Krüger opened the scoring early in the first period, assisted by Eklund.
17-year-old Viggo Björck, who was successful at the World Juniors, was also back on the ice for Djurgården.
“It feels hard”
The home team Färjestad, who fired head coach Jörgen Jönsson as recently as yesterday, did not immediately see any effect from the coaching change. The new coach is Christer Olsson, previously an assistant coach.
Färjestad's team captain Linus Johansson commented on the coaching change before the match on TV4 Play.
It's a failure for all of us who work with sports in Färjestad that it has become like this. Then it is not possible to fire 25 players. So unfortunately, for Jörgen's sake, he had to leave now. It feels hard.
“So damn happy”
It probably feels even harder after the match. Djurgården won 3–1, despite a late Färjestad goal in the third period.
The 2-1 scorer? Not surprising for someone who seems to be enjoying the hero role at the moment. Anton Frondell slotted the puck in with six minutes left, assisted by Victor Eklund. David Blomgren then made it 3-1 into an empty net.
Very important. We're on and fighting all the way, it was just nice, says Frondell.
Eklund was also lyrical about being home on Swedish soil and playing again.
"So damn happy. I love being home here with Djurgården. Things like this warm my heart," says Eklund.
It's been a busy few days for both of them. Now some well-deserved rest awaits.
I think we'll get some time off now to get back into the rhythm, then there's a match again on Thursday, says Frondell.
46 days of waiting over
The victory is Djurgården's first three-point win since November. Even then, Färjestad was the opposition, 46 days and 12 games ago.
For Färjestad, the problems continue. The loss was the team's fifth in a row and the Karlstad club is eighth in the table. Djurgården is seventh.
