The final gap expert can go up in SHL for the third time
Djurgården and AIK are currently fighting for a place in SHL for the next season, and it is a smooth struggle.
With three matches played in the final – which is decided in the best of seven – Djurgården leads 2-1 in matches. This after AIK won Easter’s match with 4-3 after an extension.
Someone who has a routine and knowledge about what it takes to take the step from Hockeyallsvenskan to SHL is Djurgården’s Tyler Kelleher.
The American joined In the spring of 2022 to HV71, and was a strong contributing reason for the team a few months later taking the step back to SHL.
The season after spent Kelleher in Finland. He played in Pelicans in the highest league and ended the season with a final loss against Tappara.
In the fall of 2023 he was back in Sweden. Brynäs had been moved down to Hockeyallsvenskan and Tyler Kelleher’s mission was to take them back to the highest series.
Last spring he could celebrate that the assignment was completed. Brynäs was back in SHL and 30-year-old Tyler Kelleher became the entire playoffs of the playoffs.
So he has the chance to take up a team for SHL for the third time in four seasons, but for that Djurgården requires two more victories.
– It’s fun to play in the biggest matches, says Kelleher.
There is already a lot Routine in this Djurgården – Dick Axelsson, Marcus Krüger, Linus Klasen and Daniel Brodin to name a few. The latter three were all included in the final losses of recent seasons against Brynäs and Modo.
Kelleher who knows most about what it takes to take up a team for the highest series believes that routine should not be underestimated during an endgame. Above all, it is important during matches where the puck bounces obliquely or where the team has a post out, rather than post.
– If we are down in a match, and as a team then have to get together, I think experience plays a big role. We have many guys in the team who have won and I think those experiences help us a lot. It’s something we need to use to win this.
It feels like you are a bit of an expert in these contexts?
« Yes really, » he says with a wide smile.
– It takes a lot of hard work and the team holds together. Nobody thinks this will be easy so we have to continue to drive on.
When he gets asked if it is in these matches that he likes the best, he says:
– Yes absolutely, this is why we play hockey. This is a dream that comes to me, he says.
After scoring a goal in the first final and assisting to two in the second, Kelleher was allowed to leave the ice without points in Easter’s loss match.
