ECL '22 Winter Elite: Season Recap - Dominance and new challengers at the top

SportsGamers,

It's time to put yet another exciting season of the best virtual hockey in Europe in the rearview. This season, we had also an influx of fresh blood into the division with Roots Gaming, HV71 and Djurgården Hockey all having their first sniff of action in the top 16. On the other hand, we also saw the rivalry between top teams hREDS and Frölunda HC grow deeper, while trusty old HAVU Gaming was once again forced out of the battle for the brightest positions. One of the most exciting storylines of the season was the explosive growth of the talent in SAWO ESPORTS, who against all expectations managed to grab a #2 seed into the playoffs, and as a result were rewarded with several individual player awards at the end of the season. For some, this season will be the end of their time at the top for now, whereas others will come back in a few weeks time to continue their quest for greatness and a ticket to the Grand Finals.

Regular season

Throughout the regular season, we saw some fluctuation in the standings. Characteristic to the NHL 22 game, some games were perhaps tighter than usual, resulting in several somewhat surprising outcomes in individual games. In the long run, however, also luck and fortunate bounces have to be earned, which led to hREDS being the sole team to dominate the standings throughout. As stated, the biggest success story of the season was SAWO ESPORTS, who surprised everyone with their very mature play despite being such a young team. In fact, SAWO were the best defensive team in the regular season with a GAA of only 1. At the other end of the spectrum, we've got HV71 with a GAA of 3.2, which is interesting for a team that has been notorious for their structured defensive play. 

This season, we expected to see GOONS cement their place at the top in contention for the title along with the greats Frölunda HC, HAVU Gaming and hREDS, but that storyline didn't unfold quite as expected. GOONS acquired talented young centerman Arttu @laitineen64 Laitinen from IQUE in the offseason to bolster their offense, but their play never really seemed to click as expected. Instead, we saw IQUE take some great steps forward as they had greatly improved on the defensive side, which had been one of their biggest problems in previous seasons. Their acquisitions of Aaro @Ikavalko Ikävalko and Jean-Patrick @Patsberg_ Kotonen proved to work out excellently as both managed to improve, and are looking as formidable top player competitors moving forward. 

The Swedish side Granit Gaming gathered a real super team for their push to glory, but at leas their regular season ended up being a minor disappointment. We were certainly used to seeing the great chemistry between cover gamer duo Johan @Lehmannens Lehmann and Hampus @l-Furyan-l Duvefelt, but while they were great on the offense, the team struggled a bit in keeping the puck out of their own net at times, which led to them missing out on very important points at times. 

Outside of the playoff picture, teams like Roots Gaming and ZSC Esports fell short, eventually by quite a large margin, but their campaigns can be considered successful nonetheless. On the other hand, Örebro Hockey and YMCA Esports finished in no man's land and would have liked to do way better based on their starting point. 

Northern Ascendancy, HV71 and Conquer Gaming would head to relegation battles, whereas Djurgården Hockey would face direct relegation to end their first stint in the Elite division.

Playoffs

Quarterfinals didn’t let anybody cold as for example we had battle between two of the biggest dynasty´s in ECL history, Frölunda HC and HAVU Gaming. Every tight game ended up going for indians and they became second team going to the semifinals by a sweep with hREDS getting it done as well against GOONS. Quarterfinals also offered us one of the biggest surprises of ECL 22 Winter. After great regular season second seed SAWO ESPORTS didn’t get their game going against Granit Gaming. After being down 3-0 Sawo found a way to get things going on the other way by winning two next games. This wasn’t enough as Swedish guys punched their ticket to semifinals in game 6 with a 2-1 win. Fourth team going to the semifinals was the other Swedish group Färjestad. They got things done as well in six games against regular season surpriser IQUE. Like Sawo also IQUE started a little comeback after being down 3-0 but couldn’t finish it.If you have to choose one player who was most important for their team you have to go with Andreas @affelj96(affelj-) Ljundberg. Färjestad BK´s winger found a way to light the lamp 9 times when the whole team scored 10 goals in quarterfinals. You have to give credit also to the whole Granit Gaming squad because beating talented Sawo wasn’t an easy task. 

Other semifinal pair Frölunda HC-Färjestad BK wasn’t first between these two but again the result was the same. Frölunda had the control in the series whole time and found a way to get in to the ECL Elite finals in 5 games. Fans got their wanted trilogy as hREDS was on another level in the semifinals too against Granit Gaming like they were the whole season. Filip @Faze91- Azri continued where he left last season in these playoffs and one of his highlights this season was 2 shoutouts in a row to start the series against Granit. 

 In the finals we hoped for a long series but first day didn’t go in that way. HREDS continued were they left last season by winning all three games and led the series 3-0 after first night. It wouldn’t been unfair if Frölunda would have gotten at least their first win in the series that night because games were played good by both and there weren´t big margins between these two. Second day started with game 4 and Frölunda came to the ice with lots of energy. They didn’t look team that were down 3-0 and Paul @PleeMaker Arontie was the key for their first victory against hREDS by scoring three goals and one assist. Frölunda gained a lot of momentum from that game but it wasn´t enough. After Frölunda tied game 5 minutes before third period ending everybody expected to see overtime action but that didn’t happen as Perttu @Beniittto Kemppainen scored a real buzzer beater only second before time expiring. With that goal hREDS became the first back-to-back champion in ECL Elite and they also got their ticket to the Grand finals. 

Niklas @uhNikke Nieminen for SAWO ESPORTS really put on a clinic in net all season long. There's no overstating how great he was for his team despite their amazing defensive efforts. Also, it's not like SAWO ESPORTS managed to suffocate all of the oppositions chances, uhNikke certainly did it all, from backstopping his team steadily throughout to timely gamesavers when needed the most, this man deserves the Goaltender of the season title above anyone else this season. Some othe goalies worth the mention were ZSC goaltender Reto @afc_Tschitsch Ulrich, who despite missing out on the playoffs, managed to push his team to their highest Elite finish yet, playoffs next perhaps? 

On the other hand, your usual suspects Filip @Faze91- Azri and Johan @McSavid Rundqvist were as strong as ever for their teams, guaranteeing success and the big saves when called upon.

There is no denying that Aaro @xDoumi Ruuhinen was one of the biggest factors in hREDS' domination this season. Stats don’t lie as this youngster was the top point producer among defencemen in both the playoffs and the regular season in his second season with hREDS. You have to have a great defensive pair to even have the possibility of producing those numbers, but it isn't a coincidence that after this guy came to hREDS they have won almost every possible tournament. 

There were a lot of great defenders this season including top defender trophy winner  @xDoumi. You have to mention Tuukka @Tuukka.R(KingOfApes) Röpelinen who played once again a very solid season throughout. The semifinal matchup Frölunda HC - Färjestad BK also included two great defense pairs. From the regular season you have to mention Wille @willekunq Juntunen and Putte @Putteekiing Unasin, both of these guys scored 11 goals which was most among defensemen. 

When you talk about top forwards this season you have to mention the whole trio of hREDS. Vili @Vilupoika Häkkinen scored an incredible 47 goals in the regular season and was the top point producer in both the playoffs and the regular season. Two dynamic duos who also deserve credit from this season comes from SAWO ESPORTS and Frölunda HC. Erik @Eki Tammenpää and Paul @PleeMaker Arontie were enjoyable to watch just like rookie of the season Jere @jxrska Laukka and top forward nominee Valtteri @Vattuyy Virtanen. 

With the season now being in the rearview, we once again take this chance to congratulate the decorated players and teams of the season. The spring season is just over a week away, so it's time to sharpen up the skates and warm up the thumbsticks again. Puck drop isn't far away!