2011–12 Malmö Redhawks season

The 2011–12 Malmö Redhawks season was the Redhawks' 5th consecutive season in the HockeyAllsvenskan ice hockey league, the second tier of Swedish elite hockey. The regular season began on 17 September 2011 away against Mora IK, and concluded on 2 March 2012 away against Almtuna IS. The Playoff round began on 4 March and ended on 12 March 2012. The season saw Malmö Redhawks attempting to reach the Kvalserien qualification for Elitserien, after businessman Hugo Stenbeck bought the Redhawks in January 2011.[1]

2011–12 Malmö Redhawks
League	7th HockeyAllsvenskan
2011–12 record	22–21–9
Home record	13–8–5
Road record	9–13–4
Goals for	139
Goals against	140
Team information
General Manager	Stefan Nyman
Coach	Ulf Taavola
Assistant Coach	Patrik Sylvegård
Captain	Linus Klasen
Alternate captains	Morten Green Robin Alvarez
Arena	Malmö Arena
Average attendance	6,072
Team leaders
Goals	Linus Klasen (20)
Assists	Linus Klasen (30)
Points	Linus Klasen (50)
Penalty minutes	J-L. Grand-Pierre (91)
Wins	Pontus Sjögren (21)
Goals against average	Pontus Sjögren (2.24)

The Redhawks finished 7th in the league and qualified for the Playoff round, where they finished 2nd and failed to qualify for the 2012 Kvalserien for Elitserien.

Summary

The Redhawks started the season with eight pre-season games against professional teams from Norway and Germany as well as Sweden. Malmö went 5–2–1 in those eight games (5 wins, 2 losses, 1 tie).

The regular season began pretty well. With 29 points and a top 3 spot in the first two months, everything seemed to be going as intended as the Redhawks fought for a direct spot to the 2012 Kvalserien. However, after only getting 18 points in November, as well as beginning December with three consecutive losses, Malmö jumped down to a spot below top 7, which would have been required to even guarantee a playoff spot. Malmö had enough of then head coach Leif Strömberg, who was fired from the club on 10 December as a result. Ulf Taavola, at that time assistant coach for the team, took over the head-coaching job and Patrik Sylvegård entered the team as new assistant coach.[2][3]

Malmö continued to struggle for a playoff spot throughout January, despite getting 10 points that month, five more than the previous month. The team improved sharply in February, posting 16 points in seven games. As a result, Malmö returned to a playoff spot. In the two last games of February, Malmö had their chance to secure a spot in the playoffs with a win, but failed. As a result, the Redhawks were forced to win the last game of the season, which was against Almtuna. The game was a nail-biter for 59 minutes, but with just one minute left on the clock, Malmö captain Linus Klasen scored the only goal of the game to send the Redhawks to the Playoff round.[4]

The Playoff round started well, but because Malmö only received one extra point due to the 7th seed in the regular season, the Redhawks were two points outside the spot for the 2012 Kvalserien going into the final game. While Malmö won their game 4–1, Rögle won their game 7–0 and took the Kvalserien spot due to better goal difference than Malmö, ending the Redhawks' 2011–12 season.

Schedule and results

"@" indicates that the game was played on away ice.

Pre-season

2011 pre-season game log: 5–2–1 (home: 1–2–0; road: 4–0–1)
August 11 – September 11 # Date Opponent Score Decision Record 1 August 11 Sparta Sarpsborg 4-0 Toivonen 1–0–0 2 August 12 @ SønderjyskE 3-2 Toivonen 2–0–0 3 August 20 @ Växjö Lakers 2-2 Toivonen 2–0–1 4 August 24 @ Sparta Sarpsborg 4-1 Sjögren 3–0–1 5 August 26 Hamburg Freezers 1-3 Toivonen 3–1–1 6 September 3 @ Hannover Scorpions 5-2 Sjögren 4–1–1 7 September 8 Växjö Lakers 1-2 Toivonen 4–2–1 8 September 11 @ Hamburg Freezers 5-3 Sjögren 5–2–1

Legend:   Win   Overtime win   Loss   Tie |}

Regular season

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
4	VIK Västerås	52	29	1	6	16	157	116	+41	95	Advance to pre-qualifiers
5	Rögle BK	52	21	7	8	16	171	150	+21	85
6	IK Oskarshamn	52	23	4	5	20	146	145	+1	82
7	Malmö Redhawks	52	22	6	3	21	139	140	−1	81
8	Mora IK	52	22	5	4	21	168	144	+24	80
9	Södertälje SK	52	22	2	6	22	110	120	−10	76
10	IF Troja/Ljungby	52	19	4	4	25	134	154	−20	69

Source:

2011-12 Game Log: 22–21–9, 81 Points (Home: 13–8–5; Road: 9–13–4)
September: 5-1-0, 15 Points (Home: 2-1-0; Road: 3-0-0) Game September Opponent Score Decision Record 1 17 @ Mora 4-3 Toivonen 1-0-0 2 19 Bofors 5-0 Sjögren 2-0-0 3 24 Västerås 2-6 Toivonen 2-1-0 4 26 @ Rögle 5-2 Sjögren 3-1-0 5 28 Tingsryd 4-1 Sjögren 4-1-0 6 30 @ Sundsvall 3-2 Sjögren 5-1-0
October: 4-3-1, 14 Points (Home: 3-0-1; Road: 1-3-0) Game October Opponent Score Decision Record 7 5 @ Leksand 3-1 Toivonen 6-1-0 8 7 @ Troja/Ljungby 2-4 Toivonen 6-2-0 9 10 Oskarshamn 6-2 Sjögren 7-2-0 10 14 @ Örebro 3-6 Sjögren 7-3-0 11 19 Södertälje 3-2 SO Toivonen 7-3-1 12 22 Borås 4-2 Toivonen 8-3-1 13 26 Almtuna 3-0 Toivonen 9-3-1 14 28 @ Bofors 2-3 Sjögren 9-4-1
November: 5-5-2, 18 Points (Home: 3-2-1; Road: 2-3-1) Game November Opponent Score Decision Record 15 2 Rögle 2-4 Toivonen 9-5-1 16 4 @ Tingsryd 3-4 Toivonen 9-6-1 17 6 Sundsvall 3-4 SO Sjögren 9-6-2 18 8 Leksand 3-1 Sjögren 10-6-2 19 10 @ Västerås 1-4 Sjögren 10-7-2 20 14 Troja/Ljungby 3-2 Sjögren 11-7-2 21 16 @ Oskarshamn 4-3 SO Sjögren 11-7-3 22 18 Örebro 5-4 Toivonen 12-7-3 23 21 @ Södertälje 1-4 Toivonen 12-8-3 24 24 @ Borås 3-1 Sjögren 13-8-3 25 26 Mora 2-5 Sjögren 13-9-3 26 30 @ Almtuna 4-1 Sjögren 14-9-3
December: 1-6-1, 5 Points (Home: 1-3-0; Road: 0-3-1) Game December Opponent Score Decision Record 27 2 @ Bofors 2-5 Sjögren 14-10-3 28 6 Västerås 0-2 Sjögren 14-11-3 29 8 @ Rögle 2-4 Sjögren 14-12-3 30 10 Tingsryd 1-2 Sjögren 14-13-3 31 14 @ Sundsvall 4-3 SO Sjögren 14-13-4 32 19 Leksand 1-2 Sjögren 14-14-4 33 27 @ Troja/Ljungby 1-3 Sjögren 14-15-4 34 29 Oskarshamn 5-2 Toivonen 15-15-4
January: 2-3-3, 10 Points (Home: 2-1-2; Road: 0-2-1) Game January Opponent Score Decision Record 35 6 @ Örebro 1-2 Toivonen 15-16-4 36 8 Södertälje 2-3 SO Toivonen 15-16-5 37 14 Borås 4-5 Toivonen 15-17-5 38 16 Almtuna 3-2 Sjögren 16-17-5 39 18 @ Mora 4-5 OT Toivonen 16-17-6 40 25 Bofors 2-1 Sjögren 17-17-6 41 28 @ Västerås 2-5 Sjögren 17-18-6 42 30 Rögle 3-2 SO Sjögren 17-18-7
February: 4-3-2, 16 Points (Home: 2-1-1; Road: 2-2-1) Game February Opponent Score Decision Record 43 1 @ Tingsryd 3-0 Sjögren 18-18-7 44 3 Sundsvall 2-1 Sjögren 19-18-7 45 6 @ Leksand 0-6 Toivonen 19-19-7 46 15 Troja/Ljungby 3-1 Sjögren 20-19-7 47 17 @ Oskarshamn 3-2 SO Sjögren 20-19-8 48 19 Örebro 2-1 OT Sjögren 20-19-9 49 24 @ Södertälje 3-2 Sjögren 21-19-9 50 27 @ Borås 1-4 Sjögren 21-20-9 51 29 Mora 1-4 Sjögren 21-21-9
March: 1-0-0, 3 Points (Road: 1-0-0) Game March Opponent Score Decision Record 52 2 @ Almtuna 1-0 Sjögren 22-21-9

Legend:   Win (3 points)   Overtime/Shootout win (2 points)   Loss (0 points)   Overtime/Shootout loss (1 point) |}

Playoff round

In the Playoff round, the 4th seed starts at four points, the 5th seed at three points, the 6th seed at two points, and the 7th seed at one point. As Malmö were the 7th-seeded team, they started at one point. The top team after six rounds advances to the 2012 Kvalserien. {{:2011–12 HockeyAllsvenskan season|transcludesection=Playoff|showteam=MIF}}

Playoff game log: 4–2–0 (Home: 1-2-0; Road: 3-0-0)
March Game March Opponent Score Decision Record 1 4 Västerås 3-5 Sjögren 0–1–0 2 6 @ Rögle 3-1 Sjögren 1-1-0 3 7 @ Oskarshamn 4-2 Sjögren 2-1-0 4 9 Oskarshamn 0-1 Sjögren 2-2-0 5 11 Rögle 5-3 Sjögren 3-2-0 6 12 @ Västerås 4-1 Sjögren 4–2–0

Statistics

Players

Player	Team	GP	G	A	+/–	PIM	Pts

Goaltenders

Player	GP	TOI	SOG	GA	SO	GAA	SV%
Pontus Sjögren	36	2092:02	1020	78	3	2.24	92.35%
Hannu Toivonen	19	1054:00	550	58	1	3.30	89.45%

Final roster

#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
40		Pontus Sjögren	G	L	35	2011	Stockholm, Sweden
28		Hannu Toivonen	G	L	36	2011	Kalvola, Finland
3		Robin Weihager	D	R	32	2009	Hässleholm, Sweden
6		Emil Carnestad	D	L	28	2010
23		J. D. Forrest	D	L	39	2011	Auburn, New York
34		Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre	D	R	43	2011	Montreal, Quebec
74		Tim Heed	D	R	29	2011	Göteborg, Sweden
5		Marcus Högström	D	L	31	2012	Sveg, Sweden
22		Daniel Josefsson	D	L	38	2011	Tranås, Sweden
77		Alexander Ribbenstrand	D	L	33	2011	Stockholm, Sweden
14		Stefan Lassen	D	L	34	2011	Herning, Denmark
13		Morten Green (A)	F	L	39	2009	Hørsholm, Denmark
16		Magnus Häggström	W	R	33	2012	Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
86		Linus Klasen (C)	W	L	34	2011	Stockholm, Sweden
29		Tomas Kollar	W	L	38	2011	Stockholm, Sweden
4		Roger Ohlsson	C	L	28	2007	Malmö, Sweden
15		Alexander Barta	C	R	37	2011	West Berlin
53		Lukas Eriksson	C	L	31	2011	Karlstad, Sweden
71		Pathrik Westerholm	C/LW	L	28	2008	Karlskrona, Sweden
21		Jesper Mattsson	C/RW	R	45	2011	Malmö, Sweden
10		Robin Alvarez (A)	LW	L	32	2004	Malmö, Sweden
11		Robert Carlsson	LW	L	42	2011	Södertälje, Sweden
84		Dragan Umicevic	RW	R	35	2011	Dubica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
17		Ponthus Westerholm	RW	R	28	2008	Karlskrona, Sweden
7		Ivan Čiernik	RW	L	42	2011	Levice, Slovakia
81		Miroslav Lažo	RW	R	42	2011	Bratislava, Slovakia

References

1. "Hugo Stenbeck köper Redhawks" (in Swedish). Sydsvenskan. 2011-01-28. Archived from the original on 2011-01-31. Retrieved 2011-05-17.
2. Martin, Nathalie (2011-12-10). "Ny huvudtränare" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Archived from the original on 2012-04-06. Retrieved 2011-12-10.
3. Martin, Nathalie (2011-12-26). "Patrik Sylvegård ny assisterande tränare" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Archived from the original on 2012-05-16. Retrieved 2011-12-27.
4. Winnberg, Christian (2012-03-02). "Malmö Redhawks säkrade förkvalserieplatsen" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2012-03-02.