‘I don’t know why we work together, but it’s fun’
PENTICTON — In their first game together in more than a year, Elias Pettersson and Jonathan Dahlén combined to produce three goals, six points and a handful of jaw-dropping plays that revealed the eerie connection between the two young Swedes.
After Friday night’s performance, Pettersson was asked if he was surprised the chemistry came back so quickly.
“Not really, to be honest,” said the slender centre. “We think the same on the ice and we know where we’ll be.”
You can add confidence to the list of Pettersson’s attributes.
Friday night, in the first game of the Young Stars Classic, the Vancouver Canucks curbstomped the Winnipeg Jets 8-2 with Pettersson and Dahlen providing the electricity.
Pettersson, Petrus Palmu and Jonah Gadjovich each scored two goals for the Canucks’ young stars, while Adam Gaudette and Dahlén added singles.
But the story of this game was Pettersson and Dahlén and the magic they produced on a line with Kole Lind.
After a relatively slow start, Pettersson put Dahlén in alone with a 70-foot, tape-to-tape pass that Dahlén converted into the Canucks’ fourth goal.
A couple of minutes later, Pettersson took a feed from his linemate and snapped a laser under the crossbar for the Canucks’ sixth goal.
Pettersson then converted a Dahlén rebound in the third period to complete the romp.
True, the Canucks have all their high-end prospects in Penticton with the exception of Quinn Hughes. But the Jets’ lineup featured a pair of firstround picks in Kristian Vesalainen and Logan Stanley and nine other drafted players.
“I thought the first period was going to be tough and I was expecting that,” said Dahlén.
“We got more comfortable in the second period.”
Pettersson and Dahlén played together for parts of three seasons in the Timra system before Pettersson left to join Vaxjo in the Swedish elite league last season. Pettersson led Vaxjo to the league championship and was named MVP. Dahlén stayed behind at Timra and won the club a promotion to the elite league with a standout campaign of his own.
This was their first game together since the end of the 2016-17 season.
“It’s not going to disappear in a year,” Dahlén said of the chemistry between the two. “We’re still the same kind of players. I mean, it’s just there.”
Dahlén was asked to explain the so-called “it factor.”
“It’s a hard question,” he said. “I don’t know why we work together, but it’s fun.”
Dahlén also turned Jets’ defenceman Jacob Cederholm inside out. He’s listed at 5-11 and 180 pounds but he has the uncanny ability to create space in tight spaces with his edges. His father Ulf, who played just under 1,000 NHL games over 14 seasons, had the same skill.
“It’s in the blood,” said Pettersson.