A Good Week In Leksand

Check out that smile on captain Anna Puschke's face! That's the smile of a captain whose team had a very good week as Leksands IF made some waves in the SDHL this week. As we know, both Purschke and Tatum Amy are playing for Leksands while Jordan Colliton is the head coach as the Mount Royal Cougars have a strong presence in the Swedish municipality, but former Alberta Pandas forward Autumn MacDougall adds to the strong Canada West contingent as she found her way onto the scoresheet this week as well! What may have happened in those games? Let's take a look at why Anna's smiling as we look at the two games that Leksands played!

Leksands IF was the guest for the home opener for SDE HC, but they cared not about the home team's party that night. Four different goal scorers paced Leksands to a 4-0 lead through the first 45 minutes of play as Leksands recorded their first win of the 2023-24 season with a 5-1 victory over SDE. Anna Purschke had a pair of goals while Tatum Amy scored and Autumn MacDougall assisted on Purschke's first goal as all three former Canada West players were on the scoresheet in this game!

If there is one downer, former UBC Thunderbirds netminder Kate Stuart was the goaltender who was victimized four times as Purschke's second goal came with Stuart on the bench for the extra attacker. Other former U SPORTS players in Shae Demale and Lauren Dabrowski who skated for SDE didn't factor into the scoring.

Highlights of Tuesday's game are below!


There was little time to celebrate as Leksands IF moved on to play AIK who entered the game at 1-2-0 to start the season, so this game was important as both teams were looking to get back to the .500 mark. A four-goal second period paced Leksands in this game as Tatum Amy opened the scoring with a helper credited to Autumn MacDougall, former Montreal Carabins forward Lore Baudrit picked up an assist on the second goal, and Anna Purschke added an assist on the fourth Leksands goal. Make it two in a row for Leksands after they downed AIK by a 5-1 score as well!

Despite a couple of former NCAA players in Utica's Rebecca Brown and New Hampshire's Emily Rickwood, AIK couldn't overcome a very confident Leksands team as they rode the momentum from their 5-1 win against SDE to put another 5-1 score on the board. Perhaps the biggest showing of confidence was the shot totals as Leksands outshot AIK by a 45-11 count! It's hard to win when you're under siege, so AIK will need to figure out how they can get the puck down the ice a little more!

Here are the highlights from Thursday night!


The upcoming week has Leksands playing against Frölunda HC at home on the Thursday before hosting HV71 on Saturday. It won't be easy against the team that was promoted last season in Frölunda as they have a number of weapons that fans may recognize including Michelle Karvinen, Lindsay Agnew, and Sarah-Ève Coutu-Godbout while goaltender Stephanie Neatby has the SDHL's lowest GAA at 0.97 and the lowest save percentage at .970. This will be an early test for Leksands as they trail Frölunda in the standings by two points, but Frölunda has yet to lose this season at 2-0-1-0. Can Leksands deliver that first loss to the SDHL's newest team?

The second game won't be any pushover either as HV71 always plays a solid game, but they are just 1-2-0-0 on the season. There are no Canadians on the HV71 roster for the first time in a long time as Danielle Stone didn't return, but Elin Svensson has picked up the goal-scoring role as she has three goals in three games and Finnish-born Sanni Hakala has a goal and two assists. If Leksands can get to goaltender Lina Jansson, they could find goals as she's allowed six in two games. We'll see if that happens on Saturday!

Leksands sits in fourth-place with six points, tied with both MoDo and Djurgårdens early in this season. We'll see if Leksands can continue to roll with this momentum they created this past week as they outscored their opponents 10-2, but they need to be ready for a couple of great teams who are seeking wins of their own.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!