As the regular season reaches the halfway point, surprising Rögle continues to impress in the 2008-09 Elitserien.
The little team from Ängelholm is currently in second place in the standing with 39 points, six points behind first-place Linköping. Rögle is a point ahead of Skellefteå and two points in front of Frölunda, Färjestad, and Brynäs.
Rögle notched a pair of crucial wins, defeating MoDo 3-0 on Nov. 20 before holding off Djurgården 4-3 on Nov. 22. Rögle rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat DIF, thanks to a pair of goals from Kenny Jönsson. The former N.Y. Islanders captain scored the tying goal at 6:02 of the third period before notching the game winner at 15:12.
For Djurgården, the loss extended its winless streak to 10 games, DIF managed just two points during that time – thanks to a pair of overtime losses – and slumped to 11th in the table.
The game was the second straight in which Jonsson had a pair of goals. The former NHL star scored twice in the first period Nov. 20 as Rögle shut out Modo. Jurgen Penker made 34 saves to blank MoDo. Jönsson is Rögle’s leading scorer with 18 points.
First-place Linköping split its game over the span, beating Skellefteå 4-2 on the road before losing 6-2 at home to Timrå. The league leaders used a four-goal outburst in the first and second periods to beat Skellefteå. Former NHL plan Jan Hlavac and rookie Jaroslav Hinka each shot a goal and an assist to lead LHC. Hink is the fourth-leading scorer in the league with 25 points from 4 goals and 21 assists.
Against Timrå, however, LHC could do little to counter a three-line attack that saw Tom Wandell, Magnus Pääjärvi-Svensson, and Håkan Bogg all with a goal and assist to lead Timrå.
Timrå moved into 10th place with that victory.
Skellefteå shrugged off its Nov. 20 loss to Linköping by knocking off defending league champs HV 71 4-3 in overtime on Nov. 22. Tobias Viklund scored at 2:26 of the extra session to give SSK the win.
Frölunda picked up a pair of wins, beating Djurgården 4-1 Nov. 20 then blanking Färjestad 2-0 at the Löfbergs Lila Arena in Karlstad. Former Columbus Bluejacket Tommi Kallio rediscovered his scoring touch, notchng two goals and an assist. Former Florida Panther Karl Fabricius also scored for Frölunda. Goalie Johan Holmqvist made 32 saves against Färjestad.
The current standings in the Elitserien, through Nov. 22, are:

Lag GP W T L OTW OTL GD (GF-GA) P
1 Linköpings HC 24 13 5 6 1 3 +13 (71-58) 45
2 Rögle BK 24 11 5 8 1 3 +7 (69-62) 39
3 Skellefteå AIK 24 10 6 8 2 3 +11 (72-61) 38
4 Frölunda HC 24 10 5 9 2 1 +4 (61-57) 37
5 Färjestad BK 24 11 4 9 0 1 +4 (55-51) 37
6 Brynäs IF 24 10 5 9 2 0 -7 (56-63) 37
7 MODO Hockey 25 10 4 11 2 1 -5 (69-74) 36
8 Luleå HF 24 9 7 8 0 5 +2 (65-63) 34
9 HV71 24 7 9 8 4 2 -2 (66-68) 34
10 Timrå IK 24 7 6 11 5 1 -6 (64-70) 32
11 Djurgårdens IF 25 6 8 11 3 2 -7 (67-74) 29
12 Södertälje SK 24 5 8 11 2 2 -14 (55-69) 25