Frölunda HC
| Frölunda HC | |
|---|---|
 | |
| City | Gothenburg, Sweden |
| League | Swedish Hockey League |
| Founded | 3 February 1938 |
| Home arena | Scandinavium |
| Colors |
Red, green, gold, white |
| Franchise history | |
| 1944–1984 | Västra Frölunda IF |
| 1984–2004 | Västra Frölunda HC |
| 2004–present | Frölunda HC |
| Le Mat Trophy: | 1965, 2003, 2005, 2016, 2019 |
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Frölunda Hockey Club, previously known as the Frölunda Indians,[1] is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Gothenburg. They currently play in the highest Swedish league, the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), formerly the Elitserien, where they have played for most of the club's existence. They last played in the lower division, the Allsvenskan, in 1995. Frölunda have won the national championship title five times: in 1965, 2003, 2005, 2016 and 2019.
The club was founded on 3 February 1938,[2] as an ice hockey section in Västra Frölunda IF and became independent on 29 March 1984.[3] Prior to the 1995/1996 season, the nickname Indians was adopted. This referring to the successful years of the 1960s, when fans started to call them the "Wild West" (Västra Frölunda is West Frölunda in English). But as they did not want a nickname like cowboys or something with firearms, Indians was selected. On 16 June 2004, the club shortened the name from Västra Frölunda Hockey Club to Frölunda Hockey Club. Frölunda's home venue is the Scandinavium arena in central Gothenburg, which has a capacity of 12,044 people. Frölundaborg is used when Scandinavium is occupied with other events. Frölunda's average home attendance has been the highest in the league for over a decade.[4]
History
In 2003 Frölunda became the champions after a 38 year hiatus. The final game in Scandinavium on 7 April against Färjestad BK was ended by late season recruit Tomi Kallio in the third overtime period.
In the 2004–05 season, the club's 60th anniversary and 20th as independent club, the team won the league title, by having the best record during the regular season, and the Swedish Championship. That particular year was notable because the National Hockey League had a labour stoppage due to negotiations between the league and the players association. Many professional hockey players who could not play in the NHL chose to play in European or North American leagues. The largest number of professional NHL players were in Sweden during the season, including Gothenburg native Daniel Alfredsson, who joined his hometown club for the season. This increased the quality of play and many observers said that Elitserien was the best league in the world during 2004–05.[5]
Frölunda set a new Elitserien record on 6 April 2006, by winning the Elitserien playoff semi finals against Linköpings HC 4–3 after trailing the series 1–3. The season ended with a 2–4 defeat against Färjestads BK in the finals. The second game in the finals Ronnie Sundin played his 685th game for Frölunda, becoming the player with most career games for the club.
Frölunda has claimed the Champions Hockey League title on four separate occasions in 2015–16, 2016–17, 2018–19 and 2019–20, the most titles out of any club.
On 2 February 2022, Frölunda Hockey Club presented their new logo. According to the club, the new logo represents the city of Gothenburg, Västra Frölunda, gentleness and excitement. The logo visualizes two F's, two hands and the letter H which stands for hockey. The proposed redesign received negative feedback from fans and media due to similarities of the Nazi Party flag. The previous logo was announced in 1995 and represented the club for 27 years.[6] On April 20, 2022, Frölunda updated their logo, which had been accepted by members of the fan club.[7]
Season-by-season results
This is a partial list of the recent seasons completed by Frölunda. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Frölunda HC seasons.
| Season | League | Regular season[8] | Post season results | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finish | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | Pts | ||||||||||
| 2019–20 | SHL | 7th | 52 | 29 | 21 | 2 | 154 | 126 | 85 | Playoffs cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | |||||||
| 2020–21 | SHL | 7th | 52 | 28 | 23 | 1 | 133 | 131 | 84 | Won in Eighth-finals, 2–1 (Djurgården) Lost in Quarterfinals, 0–4 (Rögle) | |||||||
| 2021–22 | SHL | 4th | 52 | 31 | 17 | 4 | 155 | 139 | 87 | Won in Quarterfinals, 4–0 (Växjö) Lost in Semifinals, 1–4 (Luleå) | |||||||
| 2022–23 | SHL | 6th | 52 | 21 | 18 | 13 | 140 | 139 | 81 | Won in Quarterfinals, 4–3 (Färjestad) Lost in Semifinals, 2–4 (Växjö) | |||||||
| 2023–24 | SHL | 4th | 52 | 24 | 14 | 14 | 144 | 119 | 96 | Won in Quarterfinals, 4–3 (Leksand) Lost in Semifinals, 3–4 (Skellefteå) | |||||||
References
- ↑ "Facts". Frölunda HC. http://www.frolundaindians.com/default.asp?initid=1307&menutree=1506&toplinkname=nyheter&menuheading=nyheter&mainpage=templates/03.asp?sida=1313.
- ↑ Szemberg, Szymon. Västra Frölunda 50 År, 12.
- ↑ Szemberg, Szymon. Västra Frölunda 50 År, 170.
- ↑ "Official Statistics". Swedish Ice Hockey Federation. http://historical.stats.swehockey.se/.
- ↑ "Elitserien världens bästa hockeyliga" (in Swedish) (PDF). Pro Hockey. 27 April 2005. Archived from the original on 17 December 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061217185225/http://www.egmont-karnan.se/images/pdf/Pro+hockey+050427%5b1%5d.pdf. Retrieved 25 January 2007.
- ↑ "Swedish ice hockey team withdraws the redesign of a controversial logo" (in en-US). 2022-02-04. https://www.newsendip.com/swedish-ice-hockey-team-withdraws-the-redesign-of-a-controversial-logo/.
- ↑ "Frolunda gets another new logo after recent redesign rejected by fans" (in en). https://www.markerzone.com/news/index.php?no=117588.
- ↑ Code explanation; GP—Games played, W—Wins, L—Losses, T—Tied games, GF—Goals for, GA—Goals against, Pts—Points
External links
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