Unlike most of his teammates, Frolunda Gothenburg winger Victor Olofsson is heading to the CHL Semi-Finals for the first time. On Tuesday, he helped his team's effort with 3 points, all on the power play. 

by Julia Bjers and Derek O'Brien

LINKOPING – Frolunda Gothenburg are the giants of European hockey right now, on their way to their third straight Champions Hockey League Semi-Final after disposing of fellow Swedish club Linkoping HC 9-2 on aggregate.

For several players on the team, such as forwards Joel Lundqvist, Mats Roselli-Olsen and Johan Sundstrom or even young defenceman Jacob Larsson, this is getting to be a routine. However, for some players, this is their first time. One of those is winger Victor Olofsson.

Olofsson, 21, just transferred to Frolunda this past summer from Modo Ornskoldsvik – that great factory of Swedish talent that has produced greats such as Peter Fosberg, Markus Naslund and the Sedin twins. He's adjusted well to his new team with 13 points (6+7) in 27 SHL games. He also had 3 goals and 2 assists in nine CHL games, heading into Tuesday night.

In the return leg of the Quarter-Finals in Linkoping, he broke out with 2 goals and 1 assist.

“Yes, it feels good,” he smiled after the game. “All the points were on the power play. We have a good power play and I got two passes in front of the goal and then Casey got a good shot from my pass. It definitely feels good.”

Casey is Casey Wellman, another new recruit to Frolunda this season from the United States. Wellman and Lundqvist are the team's top scorers in the CHL with 9 points each. On Tuesday, playing on the top power play unit with Olofsson, the trio was in peak form. They got a lot of time to work together in a penalty-filled game.

“They were rough,” Olofsson said of Linkoping. “A lot of penalties for both teams. It was a pretty stable effort from our side. We had a good power play and penalty killing, which determines the game.”

On Tuesday it certainly did. Frolunda were 3-for-9 with the man advantage, and scored another goal while 4-on-4. Linkoping were 1-for-7.

Some players on the team will now go to either their senior or junior national teams, but most of the Indians get a bit of a rest now after a hectic schedule lately. Their next game is next Tuesday, when they return to SHL action against HV71 Jonkoping.

“We have a little break now for a week. We need to practice and make sure that we are ready the 20th, when we are playing again.”

And coming up on 10 and 17 January are the CHL Semi-Finals against Fribourg-Gotteron. 

“It feels fun!” Olofsson said about being one of Europe's last four teams standing. “It isn’t a team that I know much about. I know that it’s a team from Switzerland and they are usually playing hockey with speed, so I think it’s going to be fun to go there.”