GOTHENBURG, Sweden – According to a Swedish proverb, “one time is nothing, two times is a habit”. Not that Frolunda Gothenburg’s place in the Champions Hockey League final is as certain as death and taxes – to quote another proverb – but three straight finals certainly has cemented the club’s place on top of European hockey.

Every final appearance has been different, though. The first time, Frolunda lost the final to a SHL rival, Lulea, in a game that was played in Lulea. Last year, Frolunda used the previous year’s loss as fuel as they beat Finnish Karpat in Oulu. This year, they’re not only defending the title, which might provide enough motivation, but they also got to do it on home ice in Gothenburg, in front of their fans.

“It does give the final some extra flavour for us and I hope we’ll get an impressive backdrop for the game. It would be fun and rewarding to win the CHL final at home,” says Frolunda’s captain Joel Lundqvist.

“Of course just winning it last year was fun but I think celebrating a victory with our fans would top even that,” he adds.

Lundqvist himself will be one of the key players, provided that he’s healthy enough to play. He missed a Swedish league game last week due to an illness. The 34-year-old leads the CHL scoring race with 3+10= 13 points in 12 games, and is one of three players nominated for the CHL MVP award that will be unveiled at the final. (Others are Sparta Prague’s Lucas Pech, who’s tied for lead in goal scoring and a point behind Lundqvist, and Fribourg-Gotteron’s Yannick Rathgeb, who finished with 12 points in 12 games).

The Frolunda captain went through a rough patch in January when he had eight games without a point.

“Yeah, January was a little rough, no doubt about it, and maybe I didn’t play as well as before the new year but mostly it was a case of the points not being there. I, and my line, simply didn’t get rewarded for our work, the bounces weren’t there,” he says.

The bounces were there in the last game of the month when he broke out of the slump scoring a goal and adding two assists he scored three points despite posting his second-lowest ice time for the season, 14:02.

That’s good news for Frolunda, but Lundqvist isn’t one to talk about himself. For him, it’s all about the team. Team always comes first.

“I am proud of the fact that we’ve made it to the CHL final three years in a row, it shows out strength. The Champions Hockey League is a not an easy tournament and especially in the playoff games, it’s been obvious that all teams play for keeps.

“As a player, I think it’s inspiring to play against teams from other countries who play different styles of hockey,” he says.

Their opponent in the final is one of those inspiring non-Swedish teams that play a different style of hockey than the one Frolunda is used to seeing in the Swedish league.

“To be honest, I don’t know Sparta’s team all too well, but Czech teams are usually built on skill and they’re good at the transition game, which makes them a dangerous opponent. But we will look at their game in detail next week,” he says.

On the other hand, Lundqvist has been on the top of international hockey for over a decade, so there will be few surprises to him.

“They have several players I’ve played against throughout the years,” he says simply.

One of them is Sparta’s captain Jaroslav Hlinka, 40, who scored one and picked up two assists in their semi-final game against the Vaxjo Lakers. He spent four seasons in Sweden, playing for Linkoping but their paths crossed already 14 years ago in a national team tournament in Helsinki when Hlinka’s Czech team beat Lundqvist’s Sweden 5-2.

Lundqvist doesn’t like to look back – he jokes that he’s got a bad memory – so he focuses on the upcoming final.

“Yes, we are in the final, but we haven’t reached our goal yet,” he says.

The Frolunda Gothenburg vs. Sparta Prague final will be played tonight at 19:05 (CET). Check out our feature with Sparta Prague forward Michal Repic. For more information and to find out how to watch the game in your country visit www.championshockeyleague.net.

RISTO PAKARINEN