Red Wings Prospects Power Skelleftea to SHL Playoff Rout

Detroit Red Wings fans are growing accustomed to seeing a significant number of pucks sail into the team’s net in quick fashion over the span of one period.

Seven times in the club’s past 11 losses, Detroit has allowed three or more goals during a single period of play.

Sunday, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, two Red Wings prospects were putting that type of rampant scoring outburst on display in their favor.

In Game 2 of their Swedish Hockey League quarter-final series, Skelleftea was whipping Farjestad 4-1. And all four goals were registered by the winners during the first 20 minutes of play.

Red Wings Prospect Sandin Pellikka Ignites Offense

Defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka was a linchpin in the Skelleftea attack, as he’s often been this season. The player Detroit selected 17th overall in the 2023 NHL entry draft dished out three assists. He drew the primary assist on the game winner by Andreas Johnson just 3:01 into the game.

Skellefteå wins 4-1
Axel Sandin Pellikka(1st round’23)
+2 3 Assists 3 SOG 1 Hit 18:08 TOI
Michael Brandsegg-Nygård (1st round’24)
1 Goal 2 PIM 1 SOG +1 2 Hits 13:16 TOI

Huge game for the kids. Impressive bounce back by Skellefteå. Series tied at 1. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/6KTWAo9mzc

— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) March 23, 2025

During the regular season, Sandin Pellikka was setting an SHL record for teenage defensemen by scoring 12 goals. He has points in four of his past five games.

Among the scorers for Skelleftea was winger Michael Brandsegg Nygard. The Norwegian chosen 15th overall by the Red Wings in the 2024 NHL draft made it 2-0 barely seven minutes into the game. Playing right wing on the fourth line, Brandsegg Nygard accounted for two hits during 13:16 of ice time.

Witkowski Touches Off Pre-Game Melee

In the absence of injured Skelleftea captain Jonathan Pudas, former Red Wings defenseman Luke Witkowski is playing first-pairing minutes for Skelleftea. He skated a team-high 22:44 in Sunday’s win.

However, it was what Witkowski did while on the ice for the pre-game warm-up that everyone was talking about after the game. The former Detroit tough guy touched off a pre-game scuffle after shooting pucks at Farjestad goalie Anders Lindback and other Farjestad players.

Witkowski also got involved in a verbal exchange with Lindback.

Luke Witkowski efter perfekta proppen: "that's why they signed me" pic.twitter.com/UwSV8RXAjc

— TV4 Hockey (@TV4_Hockey) January 4, 2025

“I asked how his family was doing and how everything was going at home,” Witkowski told Swedish website Aftonbladet.

In actuality, Witkowski and other members of the Skelleftea club were insisting his actions were in retaliation to Farjestad shooting pucks at Skelleftea goalie Linus Soderstrom prior to Game 1 of the series. Farjestad were 6-2 winners in that contest.

“That shouldn’t happen,” Witkowski said. “Then you have to do something about it.”

Skelleftea coach Pierre Johnsson commended the former Detroit player for his response.

“What I know is that during the last game they shot pucks at our goalie when he was going out and of course we were prepared for it to happen again,” Johnsson said. “Then we stood up for each other and handled it calmly and nicely.

“You always do that. We stand up for what we have. They try to do their thing and we try to do our thing.”

Game 3 in the best-of-seven series will be going on Tuesday.