STOCKHOLM – Stefan Liv saw the puck well. It was just a shot from the blueline, so he raised his arm and waited for the puck to hit his glove. It did. And then the puck continued its travel, but, fortunately for Liv, missed the Team Sweden net in the game against the Czech Republic last Saturday.

That’s just one of the memorable moments in Liv’s season. Others include HV71 with 15 consecutive games trailing 1-0 and a CHL game against SC Bern where the Swiss team scored four goals shorthanded.

The season has been a rollercoaster ride, but right now, Liv is riding high again. One of the hottest goalies in Sweden in 2009, he was back in the national team sweater in the LG Hockey Games, and his HV71 has climbed from sixth to second with a 7-3-3 (two losses in OT) record since December 28.

That was the date when Liv was back in action, having missed a month and a half due to a groin injury.

An injury that may have saved his season.

“I think my season started well, then both the team and I had a slump, and then I got injured and missed 14 games. It’s been almost a complete makeover for me since my comeback,” Liv said during the Stockholm tournament.

“The worst thing that any athlete knows is to not be able to fulfill his full potential, to play worse that he can. It’s very frustrating, and it was especially trying in the fall when we played the Champions Hockey League games and I only had one great game there,” he says.

The expectations a goalie always has, together with the expectations that come with a great season, a Swedish title, and playing in a new pan-European league, pushed Liv to overachieve, he says.

“I think I tried to do too much. That may also have caused the injury, too, maybe I was overdoing things, trying to do others’ jobs as well,” he says.

Liv pulled a groin in the November 15 game against Rögle – a 2-1 win – and left the game with 14 minutes remaining.

The next six weeks gave him the chance to rebuild himself, and his season, from scratch. And that’s where he went to, scratch. The basics. Hard work.

“I always try to go back to basics, and work harder. I got to work out, work on my game, and the team was also playing better which made it easier on me. I got a second chance, I got to start the season all over again, so maybe the injury saved my season,” he says.

“I practiced lateral movements a lot, skating, and worked out, and it was nice to be able to do that without any panic,” he says.

That worked.

In the last four weeks, while HV71 has climbed in the standings, Liv, too, has been improving his personal stats to his current 91.03 save percentage, eighth in Elitserien.

“He’s a great goalie and really hot right now,” said Team Sweden head coach Bengt-Åke Gustafsson, who picked Liv for the tournament after Färjestad’s Jonas Gustavsson was out due to an injury.

For Liv, the invitation was a welcome reward.

“It’s the first time I’m with Team Sweden this season, and it feels special, it’s really a lot of fun to be here again,” Liv said before the game against the Czechs.

Today, at 28, Liv is a veteran goalie in the Swedish national team, a regular in the World Championship, with all kinds of medals. He was a backup in Turin and Riga when Sweden won both Olympic and World Championship gold.

“I’ve been here a long time, and maybe the reason I’ve got to be here is because I’ve never complained about not getting to play. If I get a chance, I’ll do my best and try to be a good teammate. If that means that I’ll get to play the bronze medal game in the Worlds, so be it,” he says, laughing.

“He’s played great, he played well tonight, so he’s simply hot. He’s a lot calmer and focused these days, compared to when he was younger, a great team player. He’s just more … grown-up, basically,” Gustafsson says.

And a good teammate, and a great sportsman Liv is. A couple of weeks before Liv was injured, his HV71 played against Brynäs in Gävle when HV71’s Jonas Johansson’s shot hit Brynäs goaltender Jacob Markström in the throat. When Markström was about to step out of the rink, Liv appeared at the door, tapped Marsktröm on the arm and said something.

“It was really unfortunate, and I just wished him good luck. I wanted to see that he was OK. Maybe it’s a goalie thing, we know what it’s like out there. It’s like goalies play one sport, and the skaters another,” Liv says.

“Of course I want to win, and of course I’d do anything to win, but I want to win on our terms and because we’re good, not because somebody gets injured or has a bad day,” says Liv.

Maybe his season was saved by good karma.

LG Hockey Games Notebook:

• Sweden took a sweet victory in the LG Hockey Games, the third tournament in this season’s Euro Hockey Tour. The hosts grabbed three wins – Russia (4-3), Czech Republic (6-4), and Finland (4-0) – and gave head coach Bengt-Åke Gustafsson something to wave in front of those critical of the team’s performances this season.
• The LG Hockey Games All-Stars, as voted by the media:
  Goaltender: Johan Holmqvist (Sweden)
  Defencemen: Janne Niinimaa (Finland), Kenny Jönsson (Sweden)
  Forwards: Niko Kapanen (Finland), Mattias Weinhandl (Sweden), Maxim Rybin (Russia)
• Sweden iced a very experienced defence corps in the tournament. In the team’s first game against Russia, Dick Tärnström, 34, was the youngest defenceman on Team Sweden, while Marcus Ragnarsson, 37, was the oldest. Tärnström injured his knee in the second game, opening the door for Victor Hedman, 18.
• Even though Russia didn’t win the tournament, it collected enough points to secure the overall Euro Hockey Tour 2008-09 title. One tournament still remains.
• Finland scored nine goals in the first five periods of the tournament, and none in the last four. The team had a 4-1 lead after two periods against Russia, but lost the game 5-4 in a shootout, and was shut out by the Swedes in the last game.

RISTO PAKARINEN