Växjö Lakers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Växjö Lakers Hockey
2012–13 Växjö Lakers season

City	Växjö, Sweden
League	Swedish Hockey League
Founded	1997
Home arena	Vida Arena
Colors	Blue, orange, white
General manager	Henrik Evertsson
Head coach	Janne Karlsson
Captain	Johan Markusson

Växjö Lakers Hockey Club (often simply referred to as the Växjö Lakers) is an ice hockey club from Växjö in Sweden. They play their home games in the Vida Arena. The club plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL; formerly Elitserien), the top-level league of Swedish ice hockey, and made its debut there in 2011–12. Their official supporter club is Lakers Lakejer.

History

The club was founded in 1997, after Växjö HC went bankrupt that year. Växjö Lakers originally played in Växjö Ishall as their home arena, but prior to the 2011–12 season they moved to Vida Arena. The construction of the Vida Arena was finished in summer 2011.

The club began play in the 1997–98 season. Starting in Division 4, five divisions below the Elitserien/SHL, Växjö worked its way to HockeyAllsvenskan within 6 years, being promoted 3 times. With a perfect record in the 2002 HockeyAllsvenskan Kvalserien, the club qualified for HockeyAllsvenskan. Sensationally, during their debut season in HockeyAllsvenskan, the club acquired Shjon Podein, an NHL-merited North American player who played 699 NHL games and won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001. The acquirement was described as "årets värvning" (acquirement of the year) by many people.^[1] During Podein's years in Växjö he became a crowd favorite.^[2] Prior to the following season, the 2004–05 season, the team also acquired Brad DeFauw, another NHL-merited North American player who played 9 NHL games and 154 AHL games. Both Shjon Podein and Brad DeFauw left the team after the 2004–05 season.

The club would spend 8 seasons in HockeyAllsvenskan and, during that time, reach the Kvalserien qualification for Elitserien three times. Växjö did not manage to promote to Elitserien in the 2009 and 2010 respective Kvalserien qualifications, but after winning the 2010–11 HockeyAllsvenskan season for the first time in club history and earning a third consecutive trip to Kvalserien, Växjö secured promotion to the top-tier league Elitserien in the eighth round (of ten) in the 2011 Kvalserien. The team finished the 2011 Kvalserien with 26 points, which is a record in the Kvalserien history.

The team's former logo

The team formerly used red, yellow and blue as its colours, both in the team's logo and the team's jerseys. On 18 April 2011 it was announced that the club had changed the colours of their jerseys to blue and orange prior to the 2011–12 season. At that time it was also announced that the club's logo had been changed to an orange shield containing the Småland coat of arms and the name of the club.^[3]

Games in Elitserien

The club's first game in the Elitserien league was played on 13 September 2011, losing 0–2 to Frölunda HC in front of an outsold Scandinavium. Two days later, the club historically took their first points in Elitserien, beating Luleå HF on away ice 3–2 in a shootout, despite trailing by two goals in the third period.^[4] Their first home game was played on September 17, against Linköpings HC, in front of an outsold Vida Arena. Linköping won the game 4–2. Former Växjö Lakers crowd favorite Shjon Podein watched the game in the arena.^[5] Their first home points and regulation-time win came on September 27, when the Lakers won 4–1 against Modo Hockey.^[6] The Lakers' first shutout came on away ice when Modo were beaten 2–0 on 25 October 2011.^[7]

Växjö Lakers played the first Småland derby game in Elitserien history, which was on away ice against reigning regular-season champions HV71, on 8 October 2011 in front of an outsold Kinnarps Arena—exactly 7,000 spectators—in Jönköping.^[8] Växjö Lakers came out on top with a 3–2 victory in a shootout. Växjö Lakers forward Mike Iggulden scored three penalty shot goals in the game, two of them counted in the statistics.^[9]

Season history

Season	Level	Division	Record		Avg. home atnd.	Notes
Season	Level	Division	Position	W-T-L W-OT-L	Avg. home atnd.	Notes
This list features the five most recent completed seasons. For prior seasons, see List of Växjö Lakers seasons.
2008–09	Tier 2	HockeyAllsvenskan	5th	22–5–3–5	2,486
	Tier 2	Playoff to Elitserien qual.	—	4–1	2,952	1st round: 2–0 vs Troja/Ljungby, 2nd round: 2–1 vs Almtuna
	2009 Elitserien qualifier		5th	3–0–1–6	2,639
2009–10	Tier 2	HockeyAllsvenskan	3rd	29–4–7–12	2,493
2009–10	2010 Elitserien qualifier		6th	1–1–1–7	2,790
2010–11	Tier 2	HockeyAllsvenskan	1st	33–5–14	2,749
2010–11	2011 Elitserien qualifier		1st	7–2–1–0	3,521	Promoted to Elitserien
2011–12	Tier 1	Elitserien	9th	18–8–7–22	5,099
2012–13	Tier 1	Elitserien	10th	14–7–8–26	5,042
2013–14	Tier 1	SHL	TBD	TBD	TBD

Roster

Updated September 18, 2013.^[10]

#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Birthplace
2	Sweden !	Berglund, ChristoferChristofer Berglund	2.0 !D	R	25	Umeå, Sweden
4	Sweden !	Lundgren, NiclasNiclas Lundgren	2.0 !D	R	24	Västerås, Sweden
5	USA !	Welch, NoahNoah Welch	2.0 !D	R	31	Brighton, MA, USA
8	Finland !	Varakas, VilleVille Varakas	2.0 !D	R	30	Helsinki, Finland
11	Sweden !	Augustin, JeremiasJeremias Augustin	2.0 !D	R	28	Växjö, Sweden
15	Sweden !	Strömwall, MalteMalte Strömwall	7.0 !RW	L	19	Luleå, Sweden
17	Sweden !	Johansson, AlexanderAlexander Johansson	7.0 !RW	R	25	Gislaved, Sweden
19	USA !	Lasch, RyanRyan Lasch	6.0 !LW	L	27	Lake Forest, CA, USA
20	Canada !	Armstrong, ColbyColby Armstrong	7.0 !RW	L	31	Lloydminster, Canada
21	Canada !	Murphy, CoryCory Murphy	2.0 !D	L	36	Kanata, ON, Canada
24	Finland !	Lajunen, JaniJani Lajunen	4.0 !C	R	23	Espoo, Finland
29	Canada !	Munroe, ScottScott Munroe	1.0 !G	R	32	Moose Jaw, SK, Canada
33	Sweden !	Modig, MattiasMattias Modig	1.0 !G	R	26	Luleå, Sweden
38	Sweden !	Markusson, JohanJohan Markusson	6.0 !LW	L	34	Gävle, Sweden
40	Sweden !	Rasmussen, DennisDennis Rasmussen	4.0 !C	R	23	Surahammar, Sweden
49	USA !	Rakhshani, RhettRhett Rakhshani	7.0 !RW	L	25	Orange, CA, USA
50	Sweden !	Erixon, SebastianSebastian Erixon	2.0 !D	R	24	Timrå, Sweden
53	Sweden !	Larsson, EddieEddie Larsson	2.0 !D	R	22	Mariestad, Sweden
60	Sweden !	Josefsson, ErikErik Josefsson	4.0 !C	R	26	Gislaved, Sweden
71	Finland !	Kallio, TomiTomi Kallio	6.0 !LW	R	37	Turku, Finland
85	Canada !	Reddox, LiamLiam Reddox	7.0 !RW	R	28	East York, Canada
87	Sweden !	Rosén, RobertRobert Rosén	4.0 !C	R	26	Alvesta, Sweden
89	Sweden !	Åslin, DavidDavid Åslin	6.0 !LW	R	24	Norrtälje, Sweden

References

↑ "Änderson om avund" (in Swedish). Lakers Lakejer. 2003-11-04. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
↑ "Shjon Podein har landat i Växjö" (in Swedish). Sveriges Radio. 2004-10-19. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
↑ "Orange revolution i Växjö Lakers" (in Swedish). Smålandsposten. 2011-04-18. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
↑ Jonas Gustavsson (2011-09-15). "Kallio fixade historisk vinst" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-09-15.
↑ Jonas Gustavsson (2011-09-16). "Invigningsöverraskningen: Podein på plats i VIDA Arena" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-09-16.
↑ Jonas Gustavsson (2011-09-27). "Första segern i VIDA Arena". Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
↑ Jonas Gustavsson (2011-10-25). "Seger – och första nollan" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
↑ Bosse Johander (2011-10-08). "Historiskt derby i Småland" (in Swedish). Sveriges Radio. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
↑ Per Johansson (2011-10-08). "Iggulden straffade HV71 i smålandsderbyt" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
↑ "Växjö Lakers roster". Eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 2013-04-11.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Växjö Lakers Hockey.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Växjö Lakers.

v t e Swedish Hockey League

Teams	AIK Brynäs IF Frölunda HC Färjestad BK HV71 Leksands IF Linköpings HC Luleå HF Modo Skellefteå AIK Växjö Lakers Örebro HK

Former teams	IF Björklöven Djurgårdens IF Hammarby IF Malmö IF Mora IK Rögle BK Södertälje SK Timrå IK Väsby IK Västerås IK Örebro IK

Arenas	Behrn Arena Cloetta Center Coop Arena Fjällräven Center Hovet Kinnarps Arena Läkerol Arena Löfbergs Arena Scandinavium Skellefteå Kraft Arena Tegera Arena Vida Arena

Seasons	1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14

Awards	Le Mat Trophy Guldhjälmen Guldpucken Honken Trophy Håkan Loob Trophy Rookie of the Year Stefan Liv Memorial Trophy Guldpipan Coach of the Year

Related topics	List of SHL seasons List of Swedish ice hockey champions Marathon SHL standings Swedish Ice Hockey Association HockeyAllsvenskan Kvalserien Marathon standings for the top Swedish ice hockey league Ice hockey in Sweden J20 SuperElit National men's team National women's team

See also: IIHF IIHF Continental Cup IIHF European Champions Cup

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.