ECL '23 Spring Elite Weekly 4: Down to the wire

SportsGamers,

Please note that this article was written to reflect the situation before the games played on Monday, May 22nd.

It's been a quieter week in terms of Elite broadcasts with much more other action going on over on our Twitch channel, but several very crucial games have been played over the course of the past seven days, and even more lie ahead with only a few days left to go in the regular season.

Especially Tunnel Vision have been hard at work with six games in during the fourth week of the regular season. They've further solidified their position as league leaders and had scoring explosions in multiple games with 7-2 and 7-1 wins over Malmö Redhawks and Örebro Hockey. As a result, also the offensive duo Valtteri @Vattuyy Virtanen and Arttu @laitineen64 Laitinen have been able to pull away a bit from hREDS' Perttu @Beniittto Kemppainen chasing them in the scoring race. This team is really setting themselves apart as one of the strongest offensive teams in ECL Elite history with two unusually high scoring seasons back-to-back. Tunnel had a massive Sunday night matchup against Frölunda HC, in which they eventually ended up splitting points. With a couple of games in hand on their main competition, this means Frölunda HC are looking in stellar position to take over the #1 seed in the regular season. It's there for their taking at this point.

The first team to finish their regular season campaign was Heimo, who played their last matchup already on Monday evening against Örebro Hockey. They currently sit at 32 points and a 1.07 P/G, which is going to put them right around that #8-9 spot based on previous seasons. It's going to come down right to the wire for Heimo regardless and they'll be praying for some of their toughest competitors in JYP Jyväskylä, Nordic Stars and Mayhems are going to drop some points in the coming days.

One team we cannot help but notice is Färjestad BK. The recent Swedish Champions had a week to remember with a total of twelve games of ECL action being played and an SCL Finals series on Friday night to cap things off! This star-studded roster had been underperforming for quite some time already and had some trouble early on in the season, but with their season on the line it seems like the wolves from Karlstad have really stepped up their game big time. Going into the final rounds of the regular season, it looks like Färjestad BK will be finding their way into the Playoffs again and they could be one of those lower seeds to really keep an eye on!

JYP have converted on over 50% of their 17 total powerplay opportunities throughout the season and with that are by far the most efficient team on the man advantage in the Elite division. Their experienced forwards Antti @tbnantti Kuittinen and Santeri @indi969 Pendolin have stood for most of the production, with 4 and 3 powerplay tucks to their names respectively. At the moment, the team has helped themselves to a 7th place in the division and with three matchups left against Nordic Stars, Tohtorit and ZSC Esports, they should be able to stay in the top 8.

Now, one team that unfortunately hasn't impressed us over the past week is ZSC Esports. They're currently sitting in last place in the division and have managed to collect only six points in their last ten games. Their offensive and defensive numbers look decent enough to earn them a spot at least in the vicinity of no-man's-land, but results haven't quite followed for the Swiss lions at the moment. Their game is very heavy on the left wing with both Kevin @Keuschemisch Berg and Max @Toneee9 Tonitz manning that flank and it could be that the inability to balance out their game a bit more is hurting them.

Standings - Week 4

1.	Tunnel Vision	-
2.	hREDS	+1
3.	Frölunda HC	-1
4.	Heimo	+1
5.	Färjestad BK	+10
6.	Leksands IF	-2
7.	JYP Jyväskylä	-1
8.	Nordic Stars	+1
9.	Mayhems	+2
10.	Redhawks Esport	-
11.	Reality Check HC	-4
12.	GOONS	-4
13.	Roots Gaming	+3
14.	Örebro Hockey	-2
15.	Tohtorit	-2
16.	ZSC Esports	-2