NM 2026: Dabs, drama and 10 titles in a row
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This article was translated by AI. The original article is written in Norwegian.
During the May bank holiday weekend it was finally time for the Norwegian Championship. 28 eager participants descended on Kvernhallen to battle for the 26 trophies up for grabs across the various classes.
Yours truly got pulled into the NM bubble a little earlier than planned, when Andreas Fjermestad rang me on FaceTime to witness the cup draw. “We were first thinking of doing the draw without a livestream, but then we remembered you’re the only one who would have cared, so we just called you directly instead.” They insist it wasn’t rigged, but Fjermestad “guessed” correctly who would be drawn 4 times in a row, and he “coincidentally” ended up on the opposite side of Magnus Klippen in the bracket.
In the open class, the group stage passed without any major surprises. Sinus Moberg’s second place deserves a mention — among other things he beats Amund, and sends tremors through the venue with a 7-0 win over Trond Ove Gangsøy. The biggest shock, however, would come from Gustav Brådland. In a game against Øystein Klippen he fires a Brådland kiosk from center that flies just wide of the top corner. The puck hits the left winger’s head, which headers it back towards goal. Øystein can only stand and watch as the puck hits his goalie and drops down into the suplaken.
Gustav celebrates with a dab.
See Gustav’s dab in the top right corner here:
After everyone had tucked into homemade horns (the pastry kind) for lunch, it was time for the intermediate round and the playoffs. Sinus carried his fine group-stage form with him and fought his way to a very solid 5th place in A. Waiting for him in the playoffs was Trond Ove Gangsøy, the man he had beaten 7-0 in the group stage. Trond Ove got the chance to show his experience, and he did it with aplomb, winning 4-1 in games.
The table in the A intermediate round.
The most interesting round-of-16 tie was between Amund Risa Fylling and Arne Johannes Holmin. It almost seems as if, after the first game, they decided to play “first to 4 goals”. You’d have to search long and hard for a tighter playoff match.
The round of 16 in the A playoffs.
In the quarterfinals Magnus, Vegard and yours truly fought our way through comfortably enough, but it would be very tight between Øystein and Andreas. The latter led 3-1 in games, but Øystein battled his way to a seventh game by winning two sudden deaths in a row. Unfortunately for him, the tank ran a little empty, and Andreas advanced to the semifinal.
The quarterfinals in the A playoffs.
Before the tournament there was a lot of talk about who would finally manage to beat Magnus. I was tipped as a favourite for the job, and I feel that for the most part I delivered. Up until the first game of the semifinal, both Magnus and I were undefeated, and in quite poetic fashion we both lost our first game at the same time, on sudden death, 3-4. I faced Andreas, who had fought his way up from his 6th place in the intermediate round, and Magnus faced Vegard. In the second game both Magnus and I won, but in the third our paths diverged, as I lost and Magnus won.
Even with heroic battling, right-defenseman shots into the top corner (straight down the middle) in the final second, and center dekes to erase deficits, it wasn’t enough, and I had to surrender my gold dream in the seventh game. Maybe it was precisely that loss in the third game that proved decisive.
Magnus advances to a final, but not without a real fight from Vegard. The final, however, is not nearly as close. Andreas, who insists this is his second NM final in a row (it is his first NM final ever), becomes an extra in the Magnus show, who pockets his 10th NM gold in a row. No one above, no one beside.
Semifinals and final.
The day ends with a banquet, with puck awards and the annual general meeting. You can’t say there were any big surprises in this year’s puck awards (Andreas Fjermestad with yet another hjemåspuck). Maybe it was because everyone was looking forward to the next day, when they would get to try out the new team-NM concept.
I won’t go into detail about everything that happened on Sunday, but there are a few highlights that must be mentioned.
The duo of Arne Johannes Holmin and Oline Holmin Brunvoll brought in an extra reinforcement in Vegard Klippen right before the tournament started. He turned out to be a good signing, as in the group stage against Brådland and Hetlelid he was subbed on at 3 – 10, and was a major contributor in turning the game around to 13 – 12. Right after, he went for an hour-long run.
Strong comeback by Klippen-Holmin in the Duo NM.
The nightmare continued for Brådland, who in the next game faced me and Fylling. On my board there was a dodgy figure on the right defenseman, so I swapped it with the left defenseman. Gustav reacted by pulling a triple substitution on his own players. He clearly hadn’t learned that you shouldn’t make substitutions on a defensive dead puck, so the shock was great for him when I scored on the following right-defenseman shot.
See the situation here:
In the veteran class, the start of the tournament was delayed for a while, so the schedule was pretty tight. Holmin fought his way all the way to the final, but with a bus leaving in an hour, and a 30-minute drive to get there, the most important battle would be against the clock. With organisers skipping breaks between games, and Holmin’s brilliant play, it looked like he would make it comfortably. He led 2-0 in games, and 5-4 during the final music. In this final music he tries, among other things, a goalie goal, and had several passes to Gangsøy’s players. It went as expected. We had to go all the way to a fifth deciding game before the final was done, and Holmin could run out of the venue. I recommend all Jæren juniors to watch this final, because I believe it alone can romanticise Norwegian table hockey.
Sinus Moberg took the win in the junior NM. Benjamin Nygård took silver and Ane Skadsem bronze.
Thanks to the organisers for a brilliantly run NM, and thanks to everyone who helped make the weekend great! See you again next year:)
You can find the results from the tournament here: