IF Björklöven
| IF Björklöven | |
|---|---|
| File:Bjorkloven.png | |
| City | Umeå, Sweden |
| League | HockeyAllsvenskan |
| Founded | May 15, 1970 |
| Home arena | T3 Center |
| Colours | Green, yellow |
| General manager |  Daniel Johansson |
| Head coach | Tommy Jonsson |
| Captain | Stefan Öhman |
| Website | www.bjorkloven.com |
| Franchise history | |
| 1 | Le Mat Trophies |
| 26 | Seasons in Sweden's highest division |
| 3 | Swedish Championship Finals appearances |
IF Björklöven (often simply referred to as Björklöven or Löven) is a Swedish professional ice hockey club in Umeå, Västerbotten, in northern Sweden. The club is currently playing in the second-tier league HockeyAllsvenskan as of the 2014–15 season, but has played 15 seasons in the top Swedish league Elitserien (1976–77, 1978–79 to 1988–89, 1993–94, 1998–99 and 2000–01).
From 2001 to 2010, Björklöven played in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second highest ice hockey league for men in Sweden. Although the team finished 12th in the 2009–10 HockeyAllsvenskan season (which meant that the team was set to play in HockeyAllsvenskan the following season), the club was in big economical problems in March–May 2010. The club went bankrupt in April 2010, but managed to get the bankruptcy alleged a month later. Despite big further efforts by the club in order to be given elite license to play in HockeyAllsvenskan the following season, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association (SIHA) decided not to give Björklöven elite license and thus the team was relegated to the third-tier league Division 1 for the 2010–11 season. Björklöven was eventually promoted back to HockeyAllsvenskan in the 2012–13 season.
History
IF Björklöven was formed in 1970 when the ice hockey sections of IFK Umeå and Sandåkerns SK were merged. The IFK Umeå team had already at times been referred to as 'björklöven' (the birch leaves) as a tongue in cheek reference to Canadian hockey and Umeå being known as the 'city of birch trees', and after the merger the nickname became the official team name.
The team was quite successful at the Elitserien (SEL) level, the highest league in Sweden, during the 1980s and won the Swedish championship in 1987. They were, however, relegated only two years later, and has since then not been able to establish themselves permanently in the Elitserien again, but have mostly played in the second-tier league Allsvenskan, except for a few short stints in the 90s. Some notable players from Björklöven are Calle Johansson, Ulf Dahlén, Tore Öqvist and twins Patrik Sundström and Peter Sundström.
The team has recently had many promising young players, including Alexander Hellström, Alexander Sundström, Patrik Nevalainen, Daniel Rahimi and Kristofer Berglund. Due to lack of funds however, Björklöven lost all of these young players to other teams, although the first three has since rejoined the team.
Season-by-season record
| List of Björklöven seasons | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Level | Division | Record | Avg. home atnd. |
Notes | Ref | |
| Position | W-T-L W-OT-L | ||||||
| For a complete list, see List of IF Björklöven seasons | |||||||
| 2009–10 | Tier 2 | HockeyAllsvenskan | 12th of 14 | 12–7–5–28 | 2,461 |  Relegated to Division 1 (due to financial troubles)
|
[1] |
| 2010–11 | Tier 3 | Division 1A | 1st of 9 | 20–1–2–1 | 2,034 | [1] | |
| AllEttan North | 2nd of 8 | 11–0–0–3 | 2,115 | Bye to Playoff 2 | |||
| Playoffs | — | 1–0–1–3 | 2,870 | Round 2: Won 2–1 in games vs Nybro Vikings IF Round 3: Lost 2–0 in games vs Asplöven HC | |||
| 2011–12 | Tier 3 | Division 1A | 1st of 8 | 19–0–1–1 | 2,842 | [1] | |
| AllEttan North | 3rd of 8 | 8–1–2–3 | 2,698 | ||||
| Playoffs | — | 3–0–0–2 | 2,983 | Round 1: Won 2–0 in games vs Bodens HF Round 2: Lost 2–1 in games vs Olofströms IK | |||
| 2012–13 | Tier 3 | Division 1A | 1st of 7 | 22–0–1–1 | 2,503 | [2] | |
| AllEttan North | 1st of 8 | 13–0–0–1 | 3,085 | Bye to Playoff 3 | [3] | ||
| Playoffs | — | 2–0–0–0 | 4,369 | Round 3: Won 2–0 in games vs Olofströms IK | [4] | ||
| HockeyAllsvenskan qualifier | 1st of 6 | 7–0–0–3 | 4,747 |  Promoted to HockeyAllsvenskan
|
[5] | ||
| 2013–14 | Tier 2 | HockeyAllsvenskan | 14th of 14 | 13–7–32 | 3,641 | [6] | |
| HockeyAllsvenskan qualifier | 2nd of 6 | 6–3–1 | 3,632 | Saved from relegation | [7] | ||
| 2014–15 | Tier 2 | HockeyAllsvenskan | 6th of 14 | 19–14–19 | 3,552 | [8] | |
| Playoff to SHL qualifier | 4th of 6 | 1–2–2 | 5,118 | Eliminated from play-off contention | [9] | ||
Current roster
Updated 5 March, 2023.[10]
Retired numbers
Other notable players
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|
References
- "Retired Numbers". European Hockey.net. Retrieved January 23, 2007.
- ^ a b c Swedish Ice Hockey Association: Official statistics: historical database
- ^ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2012–13 Division 1 A
- ^ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2012–13 AllEttan North
- ^ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2012–13 Playoff till Allsv. Kval
- ^ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2013 Kvalserien till HockeyAllsvenskan
- ^ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2013–14: HockeyAllsvenskan
- ^ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2014 Kvalserien till HockeyAllsvenskan
- ^ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2014–15: HockeyAllsvenskan
- ^ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2015 Slutspelsserien
- ^ "Björklöven roster". IF Björklöven (in Swedish). 5 March 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
External links
