IF Björklöven

IF Björklöven

City	Umeå, Sweden
League	HockeyAllsvenskan
Founded	May 15, 1970 (1970-05-15)
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
Season	Level	Division	Position	W-T-L W-OT-L	Avg. home atnd.	Notes	Ref
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]
2013–14	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]
2014–15	Tier 2	Playoff to SHL qualifier	4th of 6	1–2–2	5,118	Eliminated from play-off contention	^[9]

Current roster

Updated January 24, 2016.^[10]

#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
57	Sweden !	Andersson, StefanStefan Andersson (A)	2.0 !D	R	33	2012	Sollefteå, Sweden
5	Sweden !	Bengtsson, RasmusRasmus Bengtsson	2.0 !D	L	22	Loan	Landskrona, Sweden
32	Sweden !	Edström, RasmusRasmus Edström	2.0 !D	L	23	2014	Glommersträsk, Sweden
15	Sweden !	Edblom, PärPär Edblom	4.0 !C	L	30	2015	Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
8	Sweden !	Ekelund, KalleKalle Ekelund	2.0 !D	R	25	2015	Nybro, Sweden
16	Sweden !	Ekeståhl Jonsson, LucasLucas Ekeståhl Jonsson	2.0 !D	L	19	2015	Stockholm, Sweden
26	Sweden !	Ekeståhl Jonsson, VictorVictor Ekeståhl Jonsson	4.0 !C	L	22	2010	Umeå, Sweden
4	Sweden !	Emmerdahl, JonasJonas Emmerdahl	2.0 !D	L	23	2015	Stockholm, Sweden
11	Sweden !	Grundström, GustavGustav Grundström	6.0 !LW	L	20	2015	Umeå, Sweden
21	Sweden !	Hetta, FredrikFredrik Hetta	7.0 !RW	R	23	2015	Strömsund, Sweden
90	Canada !	Hutchings, AlexAlex Hutchings	6.2 !LW/C	R	25	2015	Burlington, Ontario, Canada
22	Sweden !	Johansson, NicklasNicklas Johansson	7.0 !RW	L	31	2011	Umeå, Sweden
6	Sweden !	Karlsson, KimKim Karlsson	4.0 !C	L	26	2013	Älvsbyn, Sweden
62	Sweden !	Lavander, MatsMats Lavander (A)	6.2 !LW/C	L	35	2013	Piteå, Sweden
47	Sweden !	Lindskoug, KevinKevin Lindskoug	1.0 !G	L	23	2014	Trelleborg, Sweden
54	Denmark !	Maegaard-Scheel, FelixFelix Maegaard-Scheel	6.0 !LW	L	23	2014	Virum, Denmark
35	Sweden !	Ollikainen, AndreasAndreas Ollikainen	1.0 !G	L	24	2015	Karlskoga, Sweden
40	Sweden !	Persson, DennisDennis Persson	2.0 !D	L	27	Loan	Nyköping, Sweden
19	Sweden !	Quist, WilliamWilliam Quist	6.0 !LW	L	26	2011	Nybro, Sweden
28	Sweden !	Sandström, LucasLucas Sandström	7.0 !RW	L	25	2013	Fagersta, Sweden
94	Canada !	Tessier, KelseyKelsey Tessier	4.0 !C	R	26	2015	Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
10	Sweden !	Thörnberg, JesperJesper Thörnberg	6.0 !LW	L	24	2014	Jönköping, Sweden
86	Sweden !	Wargh, TommyTommy Wargh	2.0 !D	L	29	2013	Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
42	Sweden !	Wikström, EmilEmil Wikström	2.0 !D	L	21	2015	Skellefteå, Sweden
7	Canada !	Trotter, BrockBrock Trotter	6.2 !LW/C	R	29	2015	Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
74	Sweden !	Öhman, StefanStefan Öhman (C)	4.0 !C	L	39	2013	Örnsköldsvik, Sweden

Retired numbers

Other notable players

References

"Retired Numbers". European Hockey.net. Retrieved January 23, 2007.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to IF Björklöven.

IF Björklöven official website
Green Devils supporter's club
TCIM-The Club is Mine, independent fansite

Preceded by Färjestad BK	Swedish ice hockey champions 1987	Succeeded by Färjestad BK

HockeyAllsvenskan

Teams	AIK Almtuna IS Asplöven HC BIK Karlskoga IF Björklöven IK Pantern IF Sundsvall Hockey Leksands IF Mora IK IK Oskarshamn Timrå IK Tingsryds AIF VIK Västerås HK HC Vita Hästen

Arenas	ABB Arena Nord Arena Oskarshamn Arena Polarica E.ON Arena Gärdehov Himmelstalundshallen Hovet Kirsebergs Ishall Metallåtervinning Arena Nelson Garden Arena Nobelhallen Smidjegrav Arena Tegera Arena T3 Center

Allsvenskan seasons	1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05

HockeyAllsvenskan Seasons	2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15

Related topics	Swedish Ice Hockey Association Kvalserien (HockeyAllsvenskan) Hockeyettan Kvalserien Swedish Hockey League Guldpucken J20 SuperElit National men's team National women's team

See also: IIHF IIHF Continental Cup IIHF European Champions Cup

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