| 2003–04 Eliteserien season | |
| League: | Eliteserien |
| Sport: | Ice hockey |
| No Of Teams: | 10 |
| Season Champs: | Storhamar Dragons |
| Season Champ Name: | Regular-season winner |
| League Champs: | Storhamar Dragons |
| League Champ Name: | Champions |
| Seasonslist: | GET-ligaen#Seasons |
| Seasonslistnames: | GET-ligaen |
| Prevseason Year: | 2002–03 season |
| Nextseason Year: | 2004–05 season |
The 2003–04 Eliteserien season ended with Storhamar Dragons claiming their fifth Norwegian title after defeating Vålerenga in double overtime in game 7. Michael Smithurst scored the game winner nearly two minutes into the second extra period in front of 7,405 spectators.[1]
| width=20 | Rk | width=200 | Team | width=20 abbr="Points" | Pts | width=20 abbr="Won" | W | width=20 abbr="Overtimes Won" | OTW | width=20 abbr="Overtime Lost" | OTL | width=20 abbr="Lost" | L | width=20 abbr="Goals for/against" | GF–GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=center | 1 | align=left | Storhamar Dragons | 94 | 29 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 151–87 | ||||||
| align=center | 2 | align=left | Vålerenga | 92 | 28 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 183–89 | ||||||
| align=center | 3 | align=left | Trondheim Black Panthers | 83 | 25 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 160–100 | ||||||
| align=center | 4 | align=left | Frisk Tigers | 74 | 20 | 5 | 4 | 13 | 152–118 | ||||||
| align=center | 5 | align=left | Sparta Warriors | 64 | 19 | 2 | 3 | 18 | 124–126 | ||||||
| align=center | 6 | align=left | Stavanger Oilers | 63 | 19 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 163–152 | ||||||
| align=center | 7 | align=left | Stjernen | 62 | 16 | 6 | 2 | 19 | 152–137 | ||||||
| align=center | 8 | align=left | Bergen Flyers | 43 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 24 | 105–173 | ||||||
| align=center | 9 | align=left | Lillehammer | 42 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 26 | 101–154 | ||||||
| align=center | 10 | align=left | Manglerud Star | 13 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 37 | 80–235 |
The following players led the league in points at the conclusion of the regular season.[2]
| Player | Team | GP | G | A | Pts | +/– | PIM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jari Kesti | Stavanger Oilers | 40 | 26 | 37 | 63 | +31 | 40 | |
| Tommy Kiviaho | Frisk Tigers | 41 | 27 | 27 | 54 | +23 | 20 | |
 Ilya Dubkov | Trondheim Black Panthers | 42 | 32 | 21 | 53 | +29 | 70 | |
| Tomi Suoniemi | Stavanger Oilers | 40 | 20 | 25 | 45 | +17 | 20 | |
| Teemu Kohvakka | Stavanger Oilers | 41 | 18 | 27 | 45 | +5 | 80 | |
 Tom Erik Olsen | Storhamar Dragons | 40 | 28 | 16 | 44 | +32 | 18 | |
 Patric Englund | Vålerenga | 40 | 21 | 23 | 44 | +23 | 20 | |
| Lars Erik Spets | Lillehammer | 40 | 28 | 15 | 43 | -10 | 12 | |
| Morten Bakkene | Stavanger Oilers | 41 | 23 | 20 | 43 | +19 | 18 | |
| Jan Morten Dahl | Trondheim Black Panthers | 40 | 10 | 31 | 41 | +20 | 147 |
The following goaltenders led the league in goals against average at the conclusion of the regular season.[3]
| Player | Team | GP | TOI | W | L | GA | SO | Sv% | GAA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonas Bertil Norgren | Storhamar Dragons | 22 | 1,285:41 | – | – | 34 | 6 | 92.34 | 1.59 | |
| Tommy Lund | Vålerenga | 29 | 1,736:29 | – | – | 61 | 5 | 91.13 | 2.11 | |
| Henrik Smångs | Sparta Warriors | 29 | 1,807:55 | – | – | 84 | 1 | 90.75 | 2.79 | |
| Halvor Hårstad-Evjen | Frisk Tigers | 28 | 1,568:52 | – | – | 61 | 2 | 90.72 | 2.33 | |
| Rolf Joakim Wiberg | Trondheim Black Panthers | 41 | 2,428:22 | – | – | 89 | 5 | 90.65 | 2.20 |
After the regular season, the new standard of eight teams qualified for the playoffs. In the first round, the two highest remaining seeds were drawn against the two lowest remaining seeds; in the second round, the highest remaining seed was drawn against one of the two lowest. In each round the higher-seeded team was awarded home ice advantage, giving them a possible maximum of three home games as opposed to the lower-seeded team's possible maximum of two. Each best-of-five series followed a 1–2–1–1 format: the higher-seeded team played at home for games 2 and 3 (plus 5 if necessary), and the lower-seeded team at home for games 1 and 4 (if necessary).[4]
The final was contested between the Storhamar Dragons and Vålerenga for the second consecutive year. In 2003, the championship had been decided in four straight games when Vålerenga won 4 - 0 to claim their 22nd title and 18th "double". As in the previous season, the 2004 final was played as a best-of-seven series following a 1–1–1–2–1–1 format. Storhamar, as league champions, were seeded first and played at home for games 2, 4, 5 and 7.[4] They took the lead after winning the first game 2 - 1 in overtime, but failed to capitalize, losing their first home game 0 - 4. The third and fourth games were both won by the home side. Game 5 saw Vålerenga achieve an away win in overtime to lead the series 3 - 2, but Storhamar came back to claim another overtime victory in Oslo and force a seventh, championship deciding game at Hamar OL-Amfi. A record 7,405 spectators turned out for the first game 7 in the history of the Norwegian Championship, in which Storhamar's Michael Smithurst scored the winning goal after 21 minutes and 54 seconds of overtime.[5] [6]
Source: hockey.no
| Team | GP | W | OTW | SOW | OTL | SOL | L | GF | GA | Pts | ||
| 1 | Lillehammer (Q) | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 14 | 13 | |
| 2 | Comet (Q) | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 15 | 12 | |
| 3 | Manglerud Star | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 26 | 19 | 11 | |
| 4 | Hasle/Løren | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 15 | 39 | 0 |
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