Making All The Stops

There have been lots of Canada West-related stories to report this week, so I'm glad that the conference is doing its best in writing great pieces about all these players and events happening in their conference! As I pull my tongue out of my cheek after saying that, one player who is having an outstanding season over in Sweden is former Saskatchewan Huskies goaltender Camryn Drever. The Skellefteå AIK netminder has been posting solid numbers all season with the recently-promoted SDHL club, and her work in the crease has helped the club climb the standings. This past week was no exception, so let's take a look!

On January 11, Skellefteå started the day with a 7-12-1-7 record. The team sat just ahead of HV71 of the standings in eighth-place, holding the final playoff spot as they looked upward at teams they needed to catch. That evening saw them take that first step forward as they beat seventh-place Djurgården by a 1-0 score with Drever recording the 19-save shutout in the process.

That effort got Drever onto the SDHL's Save of the Week voting as she had a few key saves in the 1-0 victory, and Drever won 52.2% of the vote on the SDHL site with the save made in the third period below!
Clearly, SDHL voters recognized the importance of Drever's save in denying Djurgården's Linnea Adelbertson on the brief two-on-one. Again, that save preserved the 1-0 victory for Skellefteå, so Drever certainly earned those deserved honours from voters.

January 16 saw Skellefteå meet HV71 as Skellefteå looked to widen the gap between the two teams in the standings. This game was far from being low scoring as both sides came out firing pucks and finding twine as the goaltenders were under siege. After Skellefteå fell behind 1-0 in the first period and 2-1 in the second period, they rattled off five-straight goals before HV71 scored a couple of tallies late, but Skellefteå held on for the win by a 6-4 score. Drever stopped 21 of 25 shots she faced, but a second-straight victory would erase any thoughts of a rough night for the netminder.

Skellefteå moved on to face Frölunda, and Drever was given the night off by her coach. The two-game winning streak would come to an end, unfortunately, as Frölunda found the back of the net six times in a 6-2 victory. Drever did play in relief following an outburst of three goals in two minutes by Frölunda at the start of the second period, but her presence could not spark her team in this game.

Despite resting for one game, Camryn Drever earned two Save of the Week nominations from the SDHL for her efforts against HV71. Fans voted once again for which save from the four goalies featured was the best, and Drever captured the vote for a second-straight week with 63.5% of the votes! Check out this amazing save below!
HV71's Hilda Svensson had that goal taken away from her by Drever with an incredible kick save late in the January 16 game to help preserve the 6-4 win. As a fun fact, Drever also captured the second-place vote with 26.4% of the votes for a save she made against Frölunda, so Drever had the top-two saves from the week!

SDE was the next team waiting for Skellefteå on January 23, and Camryn Drever was back between the pipes for this one as they looked to take down the fifth-place team. Drever was once again solid as she stopped 26 of 27 shots, and her team helped her with their offensive output as Skellefteå picked up the 4-1 victory! With the teams ahead of them dropping recent games, Skellefteå began to close the gap between themselves and the teams ahead of them!

Skellefteå met Leksands IF on January 26 in their most recent game, and this was a game that Skellefteå needed to win against the worst team in the SDHL. Drever was back in the blue paint as this one got underway, and Drever delivered another masterful performance as she stopped all 20 shots she faced for the shutout in Skellefteå's 3-0 win. That marked the fourth-straight win for Drever in games she's started, and Skellefteå enters Thursday's game against the powerful MoDo club having won four of their last five games. MoDo is in a battle for second-place, so Skellefteå will need to be ready to play.

The upturn in Skellefteå's season has seen them move within ten points of fourth-place while they sit just three points back of sixth-place Linköping HC in the standings. All teams have played 32 games thus far so no one has any games in-hand they can use to help them, but Skellefteå might be entering their toughest run of the schedule with MoDo, Brynäs IF, and Luleå back-to-back to end the regular season. If they don't improve their standing, they'll be looking at a playoff series with Luleå as well, so Skellefteå might be in tough regarding the end of their first SDHL season.

What can't be denied, though, is that Camryn Drever is having herself an incredible season. She sits with a 10-10-0 record while holding down a 2.04 GAA and a .932 save percentage. That goals-against average puts her seventh-overall and her save percentage puts her as sthe sixth-best goalie in Sweden's top league. She's only allowed 43 goals in 22 games thus far, and she's a big reason why Skellefteå is poised to make the SDHL playoffs this season.

That's a heckuva season for a rookie goaltender in Sweden's professional league, and I suspect there may be a few teams calling about her availability for next season unless Skellefteå does the smart thing and re-signs her as soon as possible!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!