Viktor Andren is playing a bigger role than expected in his first season with the Vaxjo Lakers A-team. The young goalie took a moment to talk about his meteoric rise to the top among SHL goalies, and about the CHL and the upcoming Quarter-Finals.  

by Pontus Bjers

VAXJO – At 22 years of age, goaltender Victor Andren is getting his first taste of elite level hockey and right now is one of the hottest goalies in Sweden. Brought up to the Vaxjo Lakers to back up former NHLer Joacim Ericsson, an injury has thrown the youngster into the starting role, and he has flourished. After 23 SHL games, his 1.89 goals-against average is third-best in the league. 

In the Champions Hockey League, Andren and Ericsson have split the playing time down the middle, but Andren's statistics are better with a goals-against average of 1.66 and save percentage of 93.27. Now the team and he look ahead to the Quarter-Finals against the top team in Switzerland, ZSC Lions Zurich.

Just two seasons ago you played in the Swedish third division and last year in Allsvenskan. Now you're playing with Vaxjo in the SHL. You’ve taken big steps fast. What do you say about your own development?

“I have gotten the same opportunity this year as I got last year when the other goalie – Jonas Gunnarsson in Pantern last year and Joacim Eriksson this year – got injured quite early in the season. That gave me a lot of responsibility and got to play a lot of games. When it’s like that you don’t have time to think too much and over chew things and you also don’t have time to work on details a lot either. I think that playing a lot of games has really helped my game and to get in to it.”

Now you’ve started most games in both the SHL as well as the CHL. When you got here, did you expect things to go this well this quick?

“No, not really, I was prepared to compete and then be ready when the opportunity came up. With that said though, I might have played more games than I thought I would and even perhaps more than I had hoped to. You know that things can happen and change fast in this sport so you when opportunities come up you have to be ready.”

What can you say about your SHL season so far?
 
 “I think that we’ve been up and down a bit. We play against good teams every night so you have to be on top of your game to compete. We are not completely satisfied yet; we have some things we can sharpen up but we’re getting there.”

You started out quite slow but during November you we’re one of the best teams in the league. Why do think there has been such a big difference in your performance?

“We had a lot of new players coming in to the season and a few from outside of Sweden that might not have had full knowledge of what type of league SHL is. There is a bit more structure than other leagues around Europe and that takes some time to get used to. But as I said, we’re not satisfied yet but we’ve come some way to where we want to be.”

Now to the CHL. We’ve come past the group stage and you’ve played a few playoff game now. What are your thoughts of this season’s CHL?

“It’s gone well. We’ve taken the CHL very seriously and wanted to get through all the time. We’ve performed on a high level many times. I think that we’ve played against good opponents every time and you notice that there is a mixture of different types of hockey being played depending on what country the team comes from. In the group stage, when we played every team twice, we learned to play against some of those types.”

Can it also be a nice experience to travel around Europe with your teammates?

“Yes absolutely. We get to see how other teams have it and what type of hockey they play. And then it’s always fun to travel to new places, I think everybody would agree with me on that. If we hadn’t played a CHL game in Belarus I might have never visited there, so that part is fun and an experience.”

What are your expectations on the Quarter-Final against ZSC Lions Zurich?

“We know that we’re going to play against a very good team, perhaps one of the best in Europe, so it’s going to be two really tough games. It’s going to be fun, definitely.”

What do you know about the team and the type of hockey played in Switzerland?

“You have always heard that Swiss teams are really skilled. Maybe not the same structure that we have here in Sweden but really good and skilled players. We expect to play against a very good opponent.”

Have you as a team said anything about your goal with the CHL?

“We’ve talked about how we want to play in the Final later this season. And you can say that it’s now the real fun begins. We’ve said that when you reach the Quarter-Finals, that’s when you have to pick up that little extra something to beat the other team and move on to the next round. It’s going to be very exciting!”