Last night, seven-time NHL all-star Peter Forsberg set-up the first goal and scored a second leading his MoDo hockey team to a 6-2 victory over Lulea.

Forsberg is fulfilling a promise to himself and his fans to return to his hometown of Ornskoldsvik, Sweden and play for the Swedish Elite League once more. Ten years ago, he left for the NHL where he has most recently played for the Colorado Avalanche, until his contract expired this summer. The league's lock-out gave him an open door to fulfill his dream.

The Matchens Lirare -- "The Player of the Game," in English -- last night, however, was not the world's best hockey player. Rather, the man of the match was twenty year-old, Alexander Steen. The "A" player is the son of Thomas Steen, a former NHL'er with Winnepeg.

Alexander's father is known as one of Sweden's "Great Men" having won two silver medals at the 1981 and 1986 World Championship, second place in the 1984 Canada Cup, and who scored 264 NHL goals for the Winnipeg Jets.

Last June, Alexander was the Toronto Maple Leafs' first overall draft choice.

Steen joined MoDo after playing last season for the Gothenburg team called Frolunda. Playing for Gothenburg, he had a surprisingly good season in the Swedish J-20 league with 9 goals and 9 assists in 20 games.

The captain of the 2003 and 2004 Swedish Entries at the World Junior Championships, Steen will not be one of his teammates packing their bags and leaving the MoDo hockey team prematurely this season. Rumor has it that Forsberg's father, Kent, who is the coach of the team, has let one of the players go because the current MoDo team is too big. Morten Green, a forward, will go to Team Rogle in the southern part of Sweden, where he will get more ice time.

Last night's performance was a huge improvement over the league opener on Tuesday night. MoDo played Brynas and ended up with a tie, 3-3, after Forsberg was asked to leave the game due to an on-ice penalty.

Usually, the team arrives on the rink together. However, last night in the coastal city of Sweden, Peter Forsberg, #21, arrived on the ice "last but not least."

As Forsberg entered his home ice for the first time this season, the crowd's cheer nearly raised the roof of the stadium. If they could have had their way, they would have cheered all night. At Forsberg's request, however, the announcer beckoned the crowd to quiet down, after two minutes, in preparation for the national anthem, the removal of Forsberg's old MoDo jersey from the rafters, and for the game to begin.

Once people calmed down a bit, the symbol of Forsberg's retirement from MoDo hockey, his shirt on display up high above the ice, was removed. The crowd cheered again until the players took to the ice and began the match.

When all was said and done, MoDo won their first game. Afterwards Foppa said, "I don't like to be the focus, but this was a really fun night to be back here in Kempehallen." He added, "I feel like a MoDo guy, so this was fun from the beginning to the end."

Last week, Forsberg announced that he would return to his hometown to play one more season.

Joining Forsberg on the team coached by his father Kent, a former Swedish national team coach, are the Vancouver Canucks' Daniel and Henrik Sedin and the New York Islanders' Mattias Weinhandl. Two other locked-out players, Vancouver's Markus Naslund and Montreal's Niklas Sundstrom reportedly will not play for MoDo until early January because of contractual and insurance difficulties.

Unfortunately, it has been a week without progress in the NHL lockout. So far, there have been no overtures from the league or the players to resume talks to save a season that is already starting to slip away.

Not since the players' association made a proposal on September 9th have the sides been in contact, much less sat down at a negotiating table. The final six days of the collective bargaining agreement passed with no movement, and commissioner Gary Bettman imposed the lockout when the deal expired on September 15th.

Training camps were supposed to open the next day, but did not.

As a result, more than 150 players have signed to play in European leagues during the lockout, 30 in Sweden.

Goalie Tommy Salo ended a 10-year NHL career this summer to sign with MoDo.

Fortunately, in Sweden, hockey goes on. American fans will have to live vicariously through their European friends this season, especially those in the coastal town of Ornskoldsvik, a town we call "The Big O." (Perhaps now, "Foppaland," as they call it, should be called "The Really Big O Where Really Big Shows Will Be Taking Place.")

After just two out of fifty games this season, "The Really Big O's" MoDo team is in first place in the Elite League.

The excitement of last night's MoDo vs. Lulea hockey game in Ornskoldsvik Sweden, where NHL "Lord of the Rink" legend "Foppa" Forsberg has returned to play, could be felt thousands of miles away in San Francisco, California, by two young women from Forsberg's hometown.

The two young women are Malin Edmark and Erika Nilsson. They are currently in San Francisco and traveling throughout the states before heading to college next year.

Edmark and Nilsson claim they are two of MoDo hockey's biggest fans.

Nilsson has worked at the MoDo hockey rink since 1999 in the cafeteria, in the pub and in the summer camp. Next year, she will be going to college in Lulea, "in great part because MoDo comes to this town at least twice every year to play hockey against Lulea," she says.

"It is amazing that one man could make so many people happy," said Edmark. "People are crazy about being able to see him back on Swedish ice with his friends," she added.

"His father is the coach. His fans are so passionate that they gathered at the heart of our city, before the game yesterday in red MoDo hockey shirts, and walked for a half hour to the arena together, singing songs and pumping each other up."

Edmark and Nilsson hope their family will at least get them one of the special souvenir poster called "Lord of The Rinks." The poster was created in honor of the return of their king and his court.

Swedish hockey fans worldwide are now doing everything they can to get their hands on anything with MoDo hockey on it.

As I sit here in the MoDo boxer shorts I bought last summer, wearing my daughter's MoDo hockey cap, I will admit I am tempted to give eBay a try for the first time. On the other hand, I'd prefer to keep my fairly good "mommy" standing.

Thank you father/daughter, Sune and Lena Edmark and father/son Christer and Jonas Edvinsson for the Lord of The Rinks image.

And congratulations father and son Forsberg, Kent and "Foppa," Alexander Steen, Tommy Salo, Mattias Weinhandl, the twins, and all the Ornskoldsvik fans who have their "Lord" back!

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful, and promise-fulfilling living!

~ Jennifer King, a CU Buff and Colorado Avalanche fan, and now a MoDo fan

September 18, 2004, Modo Has Its Mojo Back...