Frolunda Gothenburg's Sean Bergenheim had a goal and an assist in Tuesday's CHL Semi-Final victory over Fribourg-Gotteron. Afterward, the veteran winger spoke about playing for his new team.

by Alain Hauert

FRIBOURG – With their comfortable victory, beating Fribourg-Gotteron 9-1 on aggregate in the Semi-Finals, Frolunda Gothenburg are in the Champions Hockey League Final for the third straight year. However, not all of their players have previously played in European club hockey's title game.

Finnish left winger Sean Bergenheim previously played for Frolunda for half a season a decade ago, but he's played most of his professional career in North America. Between 2003 and 2015, he played in 532 NHL games for the New York Islanders, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Minnesota Wild, amassing 108 goals and 197 points.

He re-joined Frolunda this past November, and since then has played in 15 SHL games, scoring 3 goals and 3 assists. He has also now played in four CHL games, in the Quarter-Finals against Linkoping HC and in the Semi-Finals against Fribourg. With a goal and an assist in the return game in Fribourg, he now has 2 goals and 1 assist in the European competition.

“The score looks makes it look easier than this Semi-Final actually was, but I think we can still play better,” Bergenheim said after Tuesday night's game. “That will be our goal for the Final – we'll have to improve our level once again and I think we will be able to do so.”

In fact, the first periods of both games were relatively close. Last week in Gothenburg, it was 1-1 after 20 minutes and this week, Fribourg out-shot Gothenburg 6-4, but only the one from Bergenheim's stick found the back of the net.

“At the beginning of the two games, Fribourg came out hard and tried their best, but the big strength of our team is that we have four strong lines and if we can keep those four lines rolling, that's what makes us a strong team,” he said of his team's depth. “And in the end that was the difference between us and Fribourg, who could not keep up that rhythm for the whole game.”

Bergenheim played a brief 21-game stint in the NLA last season with SC Bern, so he'd played in Fribourg before and is somewhat familiar with the strength of the Swiss league.

“Even if we easily got through against Fribourg and also last year against Davos, it is difficult to compare the Swiss and Swedish leagues only on these results,” the 32-year-old veteran said. “Both leagues are fun and have good teams playing in them. I think it's great that we are pushing each other – the teams and the leagues are pushing each other to make them better step by step. But if I have to rate the two leagues today, I would still put the Swedish league a little bit ahead of the Swiss league.” 

Although he's new to the team, Bergenheim is well aware of the reputation that Frolunda has earned, due to their recent dominance both domestically and throughout Europe. Now he's a part of it.

“It is a great thing that people around Europe are talking about Frolunda and we get so much respect from everyone. Fans, coaches and players from other teams and countries know Frolunda is a strong team and that is something you are proud of as a player when you are a part of this strong team.”