Before that, some introduction about SSL. Basically, SSL is Swedish highest level floorball league and is considered as the best league in the world with all the best players competing in it.
Since 2007, the league sees 14 clubs competing against each other. The league starts with a regular season of 26 matches per team, one home and one away aganist all teams. In the spring a play-off starts with the eight best teams from the regular season. The quarter finals as well as the semi finals is played in best of five matches, the final is settled in just one. The final is played in Stockholm Globe Arena together with the women's Elitserien final.
In the bottom, the last team will be directly relegated to Division 1, with the Champion of Division 1 promoted. While the 13th place team have to play a qualification play off with the top 3 teams of Division 1 to fight for the right to remain in the top division.
Regular Season:
This was how the regular season league standing of 08/09 looks like after 26 matches:
| TEAMS | G | W | D | L | GF - GA | PTS | SDW | |
| 1 | Warberg IC | 26 | 20 | 3 | 3 | 171 - 107 | 64 | 1 |
| 2 | Caperio/Täby FC | 26 | 19 | 4 | 3 | 190 - 128 | 62 | 1 |
| 3 | AIK IBF | 26 | 19 | 2 | 5 | 162 - 110 | 60 | 1 |
| 4 | IBK Dalen | 26 | 17 | 4 | 5 | 152 - 120 | 58 | 3 |
| 5 | Storvreta IBK | 26 | 14 | 4 | 8 | 148 - 119 | 47 | 1 |
| 6 | Pixbo Wallenstam IBK | 26 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 147 - 144 | 41 | 2 |
| 7 | IBF Falun | 26 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 107 - 133 | 39 | 0 |
| 8 | Balrog B/S IK | 26 | 8 | 3 | 15 | 139 - 150 | 30 | 3 |
| 9 | Umeå City IBK | 26 | 8 | 4 | 14 | 134 - 162 | 29 | 1 |
| 10 | FC Helsingborg | 26 | 5 | 6 | 15 | 134 - 156 | 24 | 3 |
| 11 | Västerås IBF | 26 | 6 | 4 | 16 | 126 - 159 | 22 | 0 |
| 12 | Järfälla IBK | 26 | 5 | 4 | 17 | 122 - 157 | 22 | 3 |
| 13 | Hide-a-lite Mullsjö AIS | 26 | 5 | 5 | 16 | 127 - 165 | 21 | 1 |
| 14 | Jonkopings NS | 26 | 6 | 3 | 17 | 98 - 147 | 21 | 0 |
League standings are determined by points score. 3 points for a win; 1 points for a draw; and an extra point for a suddendeath win(SDW).
The top 8 teams for the year that qualified for the play-offs were:
| 1 | Warberg IC |
| 2 | Caperio/Täby FC |
| 3 | AIK IBF |
| 4 | IBK Dalen |
| 5 | Storvreta IBK |
| 6 | Pixbo Wallenstam IBK |
| 7 | IBF Falun |
| 8 | Balrog B/S IK |
Warberg IC was best in the regular season and they chose their opponent first. Warberg IC chose the 7th placed team IBF Falun.
The second in the regular season, Caperio/Täby FC chose Balrog B/S and the third best team AIK took Pixbo Wallenstam.
Therefore the last pair left was IBK Dalen against Storvreta IBK.
The Play-offs:
| Warberg IC (1) | 3 | ||||||
| QF1 | vs | | SF1 | ||||
| IBF Falun (7) | 2 | Warberg IC | 3 | ||||
| vs | | ||||||
| Caperio/Täby FC (2) | 0 | Balrog B/S IK | 1 | ||||
| QF2 | vs | | FINAL | ||||
| Balrog B/S IK (8) | 3 | Warberg IC | |||||
| vs | |||||||
| AIK IBF (3) | 3 | AIK IBF | |||||
| QF3 | vs | | SF2 | ||||
| Pixbo Wallenstam IBK (6) | 0 | AIK IBF | 3 | ||||
| vs | | ||||||
| IBK Dalen (4) | 0 | Storvreta IBK | 1 | ||||
| QF4 | vs | | |||||
| Storvreta IBK (5) | 3 |
Quarter finals:
1st place Warberg had a tough time against struggled against 7th place Falun, as they were beaten at home in sudden death in their first game(6-7sd), only to return the favour by one goal in second(2-3).Both teams went on to score home wins each in game 4(9-7) and 5(6-5). But it was Warberg who had the last laugh, with a convincing victory of 8-4 in the decider.
2nd place Taby, who were dominant all the way in the regular season was stuned by 8th Balrog, losing 4-9 at home.
Taby then failed to recovered and were unable to overcome Balrog in the second (5-4sd) and third game(3-4sd), suffering consecutive sudden death defeats.
AIK won their first game by a one goal margin,(4-3), while needing Fredrik Djurling's sudden death goal to denied Pixbo in the second game(4-5sd).
The third game as thought to be highly contested but instead, AIK ran the show scored 7 compared to Pixbo's 1, qualifed with 2 games to spare.
The last semi final spot, contested between Dalen and Storverta too was decided within 3 games . Storverta with Mika Kohonen and Hannes Ohman on form, won all 3 games with rather healthy goal margins(4-7; 9-5; 2-7).
Semi finals:
In the semis, AIK played tight matches against Storvreta. Storvreta won the first match on over time(8-9sd) and AIK was better in the second match after penalties.(4-5p) AIK won the third match with one goal difference, the result was 3-2.In the fourth match AIK had a 3-1 lead in the second period, but Mika Kohonen and Kim Johansson tied the match to 3-3.
The man of the match was Niklas Jihde, who scored twice in the third period and took AIK to a 5-3 victory over Storvreta. Therefore AIK won the Semi-Final series 3-1 and will play in the Final.
In the other semi final pair Balrog challenged defending champions Warberg. Warberg was the favourite in this series and won the first match convincingly 8-1. In the second match Balrog was better on their home field and won the match after over time 6-5.
Warberg took a 9-6 victory at home in the third and the fourth match ended the semi final series as Warberg won 3-1, two goals were scored by Mattias Hasselström.
The final:
The Men´s final was a rematch from last year as AIK and Warberg IC met in the final again.
Warberg won their second consecutive title after Magnus Svensson scored the winning penalty as both teams were unseperatable after over time.
They had won two last championships and was after their third title in a row.
There were five 2 minute penalties in the first period and both team succeeded to score once on the power play. First Niklas Jihde took the lead for AIK, but only one and half minutes later Kimmo Eskelinen tied the match to 1-1, which was also the score in the intermission.
The 14 000 spectators in the Globe Arena saw an even second period. Kimmo Eskelinen scored his second goal and took the lead for Warberg, but then the player of the year, Fredrik Djurling, tied the match to 2-2.
The championship was settled in the third period. AIK had a better start as Patrik Edgren and Mats Carlsson scored two goals for AIK. Warberg was not able to reduce the lead and AIK won the match 6-2. The last goal was scored into an empty net by Niklas Jihde. The floorball legend Jihde ended his career to this final and with the victory his successful career got a golden ending.
Good bye Jihdesources: IFF; innebandymagazinet.se; innebandy.se; storvretaibk.se; warbergic.se
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