Dalen

Stefan Liv learned to play goal in Norrahammar before the position took him to the Elitserien. He died in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl air crash in 2011, and HC Dalen still lists him among the goaltenders and forwards it has developed for the top flight over the years.

The club, founded in 1966 and known to its own supporters as Dalen Hockey, has spent most of its life a level or two below where those players ended up. Two spells in the second tier, from 1984 to 1987 and again from 2000 to 2002, both ended in relegation. Promotion to Hockeyettan came in 2014, and Dalen has stayed there since, turning out in black, red and yellow.

Games against IF Troja-Ljungby carry a weight the league table alone does not explain, sharpened in recent seasons by playoff meetings between the two Småland sides; Boro/Vetlanda HC supplies the other fixture Dalen's supporters mark on the calendar.

Smedjehov holds under 2,000 for a Dalen home game, a fraction of the crowds Liv later skated out in front of in Yaroslavl. For now, holding their own in Hockeyettan remain the club's measure of a good season.