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IF Björklöven
IF Bjorkloven logo.svg
City Umeå, Sweden
League HockeyAllsvenskan
Founded May 15, 1970 (1970-05-15)
Home arena Winpos Arena
Colours          
General manager Per Kenttä
Head coach Viktor Stråhle
Captain Fredric Andersson
Website bjorkloven.com
Franchise history
26 Seasons in Sweden's highest division
3 Swedish Championship Finals appearances
Le Mat Trophy 1987

IF Björklöven (often simply referred to as 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, becoming national champions in 1987).

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 ice 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 since then have not been able to establish themselves permanently in the Elitserien again. Instead, they have mostly played in the second-tier league Allsvenskan, save 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.

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 got the bankruptcy allayed a month later. Despite huge further efforts by the club to obtain an elite license to play in HockeyAllsvenskan the following season, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association (SIHA) decided not to give Björklöven an 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.

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 Hellström, Sundström and Nevalainen later rejoined the team.

Björklöven Dam

Björklöven's women's side currently plays in Damettan, in the north division of the second tier of Swedish women's hockey. Ahead of the 2018–19 SDHL season, the club hosted the Damcup Umeå exhibition tournament between Björklöven, Luleå HF/MSSK, Modo Hockey, and the Japanese national team. Luleå were crowned winners of the tournament after winning all three of their games.

Season-by-season records

List of Björklöven seasons
Season Level Division Record Avg.
home
atnd.		 Notes Ref
Position W-OTW-OTL-L
This is a partial list, featuring the five most recent seasons. For a more complete list, see List of IF Björklöven seasons
2017–18 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 5th of 14 20–6–8–18 3,902
Playoff to SHL qualifiers 3rd of 6 2–2–0–1 4,028
2018–19 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 10th of 14 16–6–8–22 3,879
2019–20 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 1st of 14 36–5–3–8 4,754
HockeyAllsvenskan Finals – 1–0–1–0 5,400 Playoffs cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 3rd of 14 26–6–3–17 23
HockeyAllsvenskan Playoffs – 6–2–3–5 56 Won in quarterfinals 3–1 in games vs Mora IK
Won in semifinals 4–3 in games vs BIK Karlskoga
Lost in finals 1–4 in games vs Timrå IK
2021–22 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 4th of 14 26–7–6–13 3,855
HockeyAllsvenskan Playoffs – 8–2–2–6 5,176 Won in quarterfinals 4–1 in games vs Västerås IK
Won in semifinals 4–3 in games vs Modo Hockey
Lost in finals 2–4 in games vs HV71

Players and personnel

Current roster

Updated 10 October, 2019.

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
13 Sweden Andersson, FredricFredric Andersson (C) C L 35 2017 Gnesta, Sweden
96 Sweden Andreasson, PontusPontus Andreasson F L 25 2019 Stockholm, Sweden
35 United States Cannata, JoeJoe Cannata G L 34 2019 Wakefield, Massachusetts, United States
12 United States Cooper, BrianBrian Cooper D L 30 2019 Anchorage, Alaska, United States
8 Sweden Deilert, AlexanderAlexander Deilert D R 35 2019 Stockholm, Sweden
91 United States Crandall, JustinJustin Crandall RW R 32 2019 Lakeville, Minnesota, United States
53 Sweden Eriksson, LukasLukas Eriksson C/LW L 35 2017 Karlstad, Sweden
11 Sweden Eriksson, WilliamWilliam Eriksson F R 26 2018 Stockholm, Sweden
90 Canada Hutchings, AlexAlex Hutchings C/RW R 33 2019 Burlington, Ontario, Canada
7 Sweden Hellström, AlexanderAlexander Hellström D L 37 2018 Falun, Sweden
5 Sweden Häman Aktell, HardyHardy Häman Aktell D L 25 2018 Kåge, Sweden
77 Sweden Lindquist, DavidDavid Lindquist C/LW L 31 2018 Piteå, Sweden
26 Denmark Larsen, OliverOliver Larsen D R 25 2019 Aalborg, Denmark
79 Sweden Lundberg, EmilEmil Lundberg W L 30 2018 Luleå, Sweden
30 Sweden Pettersson, MattiasMattias Pettersson G L 33 2018 Halmstad, Sweden
21 Sweden Rainersson, ErikErik Rainersson RW R 25 2017 Umeå, Sweden
40 Sweden Selin, SebastianSebastian Selin RW R 32 2018 Skellefteå, Sweden
19 Sweden Söder, KristofferKristoffer Söder C L 32 2018 Skövde, Sweden
24 Sweden Stenvall, LudwigLudwig Stenvall D R 25 2019 Skellefteå, Sweden
52 Sweden Tornberg, AugustAugust Tornberg D R 31 2018 Pajala, Sweden
15 United States Vesel, TylerTyler Vesel C R 30 2019 Duluth, Minnesota, United States
28 Sweden Viklund, AlexanderAlexander Viklund W L 33 2018 Piteå, Sweden
39 Sweden Åström, FiliphFiliph Åström LW L 23 2016 Umeå, Sweden


Team captains

  • John Slettvoll, 1976–77
  • Ulf Lundström, 1977–80
  • Torbjörn Andersson, 1981–83
  • Rolf Berglund, 1983–86
  • Peter Andersson, 1986–89
  • Ulf Andersson, 1989–90
  • Peter Andersson, 1990–93
  • Patrik Sundström, 1993–94
  • Peter Andersson, 1994–95
  • Jens Öhman, 1995–96
  • Robert Ljunggren, 1996–97
  • Peder Bejegård, 1997–98
  • Jens Öhman, 1998–99
  • Christian Lechtaler, 1999–01
  • Göran Hermansson, 2001–02
  • Jörgen Hermansson, 2002–05
  • Mats Lavander, 2005–07
  • Magnus Gästrin, 2007–09
  • Fredrik Öberg, 2009–10
  • Martin Johansson, 2010–11
  • Johan Jarl, 2011–13
  • Mats Lavander, 2013–14
  • Stefan Öhman, 2014–17
  • Fredric Andersson, 2017–present

Honored members

IF Björklöven retired numbers
No. Player Position Career No. retirement
9 Aleksandrs Beļavskis RW 1991–2003 –
17 Patrik Sundström RW 1978–1982, 1992–1994 –
23 Roger Hägglund D 1977–1983, 1985–1992 –
27 Tore Ökvist F 1974–1988 –

Notable players

  • Ric Jackman
  • Greg Parks
  • Andrew Raycroft
  • Brian Watts
  • François Rozenthal
  • Maurice Rozenthal
  • Peter Andersson
  • Mikael Andersson
  • Ulf Dahlén
  • Calle Johansson
  • Peter Sundström
  • Brad DeFauw
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