Since our last installment Skellefteå have slipped from eighth to tenth, are five games below .500 and minus 20 in goalscoring. They tied Luleå 2-all on December 19. Two days later they lost 4 to 2 to Malmö in a game they should have won. The Yuletide break gave them twelve days to think about that, and they returned to beat Färjestad 4 to 3 on January 2. But then Djurgården shut them out 2 to 0 January 4. The black and gold beat league-leading HV71 3 to 2 on January 6, but then lost 3 to 2 to Timrå January 9. Brynäs is the league-leader in tie scores, so it would be reasonable to expect one January 11, but Skellefteå lost 6 to nothing, their fifth shutout loss of the season.
If our guys finish eleventh (possible) or twelfth (less likely), they're going to have to play in the qualifying tournament against the top teams of the Allsvenskan. One team hungry to come up is Kenny Jönsson's Rögle, last seen in the Elitserien in 1996.
It's three-quarters of the way through the season.
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