HC Davos forward Dick Axelsson is playing for the Swedish national team this weekend, in between the first and second legs of his team's series with Bili Tygri Liberec. It's a busy week, but he explains how he's managing. 

by Daniel Kubelka

ORNSKOLDSVIK, Sweden – Just two days after playing the first leg of the eighth-finals, several players from Champions Hockey League clubs were in action on Thursday night in various international tournaments around Europe. This included the Sweden–Czech Republic game on Thursday night, which included 11 players in the midst of a CHL series. 

Two of those players, Dick Axelsson of HC Davos and Joel Lundqvist of Frolunda Gothenburg, played together on the same forward line for Sweden. This made sense as they were teammates in Frolunda a few years ago. As Davos played in Liberec on Tuesday and Frolunda in Litvinov, they were both on the same flight Wednesday morning from Prague to Stockholm, along with most of the Czech national team. 

The Swedes got off to a fast start and won the game 6–2, and Axelsson and Lundqvist showed they still have plenty of chemistry together, connecting for the game-winning goal on a nice passing play midway through the game. Axelsson spoke after the game.

Two goals in the first five minutes – that was a fast start by your team.

“We talked a lot actually about the start of the game. We had to show that this is our home and luckily we got some early goals, which allowed us to take control of the game.” 

It looked like you had good chemistry with Lundqvist. Did that come from playing together in the past?

“Yeah, and we practiced yesterday too and we know each other pretty well – how we play. It wasn't perfect but I think we played a pretty good game together.”

On the third goal, it looked like you knew exactly where he would be.

“Yeah, he's always in the right spot so I only had to feed him the puck.”
 
It's been a busy few days for you – travelling from Switzerland to the Czech Republic to play Tuesday night, then travelling to Sweden the next day on the same flight as the Czech team. How was that?

“I was a little bit nervous there with all those guys (smiling) . . . but I had Joel with me, so it wasn't so bad.”

There were also a few Liberec players there, whom you'd just played against the night before. Did you speak to any of them about the game?

“No, not really. It was too early in the morning so I was too tired to talk.” (laughing)

It was quite a big crowd (7,148) that came to watch the game in Liberec. What do you expect next game in Davos?

“Yes, Liberec was a fun game with a lot of people in the crowd, and winning made it even better. The fans are great in Davos too – although the arena is not quite as large as in Liberec, it's quite famous and the atmosphere is always great, so we're looking forward to Tuesday.” 

Good luck this weekend in Finland and in Davos on Tuesday.

“Thank you.”