Mikael Håkanson makes history when Elitserien restarts

Mikael Håkanson played his 805th regular season game in the Elitserien when his Linköping club played Djurgården away. With that, he now holds the record for most regular season games played in the league, passing Roger Åkerström. For another player it was also a historic day, as Erik Gustafsson opened the scoring with his first ever Elitserien goal. After two periods, Linköping led 24-8 in shots on goal but the score was 1-1. In the third period, Jimmy Ölvestad scored the game-winning goal before an empty-net goal made the final score 3-1.

Modo had a goalie crisis before the game at Luleå. With Mikael Tellqvist sick and Anton Forsberg at the World Juniors, they had to rely on 19-year-old Linus Ullmark with their goalie coach as backup. Ullmark did well and made 34 saves in his debut, but it wasn't enough as Luleå came back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 in overtime. Niklas Olausson scored the game winner with a shot that Ullmark perhaps should have saved. The winning goal scorer said, "We didn't give up and it's not easy to turn the game around. We played a good team."

In the derby of Småland, Växjö took a strong 2-0 win on the road at HV71. The game was scoreless after two periods but in the third it was all about Växjö, who led 14-3 in shots on goal. Nils Andersson scored the game winner on a power play before Josh Soares added a late insurance goal into an empty net. It is an important win for Växjö in the hunt for a playoff spot. "We said before the season that we should do it, so we will do it," Andersson said about his team's chances of making the playoffs.

In Gothenburg, Victor Backman played his second game in the Elitserien and scored the game winner for Frölunda, who defeated Timrå 2-1 after shootout. Frölunda dominated the second period heavily and tied the game when Backman was hit by a shot by P.J. Axelsson and deflected the puck pass Joakim Lundström in Timrå's net. In the shootout, he was lucky again when the puck suddenly stopped and fooled Lundström.

In Karlstad, Färjestad defeated league-leading Skellefteå 3-1. Skellefteå took the lead 1-0 but a late equalizer in the second period by Johan Larsson gave Färjestad the momentum to win the game in the third period after goals by Åslund and Paulsson. There was some bad news for Färjestad as well, as Rickard Wallin left the game with a probable concussion after a hard hit.

See relevant links to the right for full boxscores from all games.

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