Whalers' Rakell wants spot with Sweden

Plymouth Whalers right wing Rickard Rakell continues to score goals and acquire frequent flyer miles.

Rakell – 17 years old and from Sollentuna, Sweden – has received an invitation to try out for Team Sweden for the upcoming 2011 World Junior Championship, which will be played on December 26-January 5 in Buffalo, N.Y.

Rakell will be playing in exhibition games starting tonight (Monday, November 1) against Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Sweden will also play Merrimack College on Tuesday, Williams College on Friday, and UMass Amherst on Saturday. Rakell will rejoin the Whalers for their game in Sault Ste. Marie on Sunday.

Skating this season as a rookie in Plymouth, Rakell has played on the Whalers top two lines all season long and has five goals with eight assists for 13 points in 15 games. He scored the game-winning goal on Saturday with 41 seconds remaining in the Whalers’ dramatic come-from-behind 5-4 victory over Sault Ste. Marie at Compuware Arena.

Rakell plays with skill, but at 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds, he also plays with a certain amount of grit.

“90-percent of the goals are scored in front of the net”, Rakell said Saturday after scoring his game-winning goal. “I don’t have a problem crashing the net if that’s what I have to do.”

If Rakell makes Team Sweden, he’ll be the first member of the Whalers ever to represent Sweden in the World Junior Championship in the team’s 21-year history.