For the second year in a row, the Stavanger Oilers ice hockey team won Norway’s league championship, this time on the home ice of their biggest rival and longtime dominant Norwegian club Vålerenga.
“It’s extra great to win here, at Jordal (Vålerenga’s home arena in Oslo), where they talk about gold in the walls, in the ceiling and such,” crowed Oilers player Tommy Kristiansen, who’s originally from Sarpsborg in southeast Norway. “But their (Vålerenga’s) time is past. That’s just the way it is. The Oilers have taken over their throne.”
The Oilers beat Vålerenga by a score of 4-1 and commentators claimed they were best from beginning to end. “The most important was that we gave those who traveled to see us play something to cheer about,” Oilers veteran Christian Dahl-Andersen told newspaper Aftenposten. And that’s important in Stavanger, where the fall in oil prices has left residents anything but cheerful.
newsinenglish.no staff
