IF Björklöven

IF Björklöven
City:	Umeå, Sweden
League:	HockeyAllsvenskan
Founded:	15, 1970 (1970-05-15)
Home Arena:	T3 Center
Colors:	Green, yellow
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.

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)
2010–11	Tier 3	Division 1A	1st of 9	20–1–2–1	2,034
		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
		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
		AllEttan North	1st of 8	13–0–0–1	3,085	Bye to Playoff 3
		Playoffs	—	2–0–0–0	4,369	Round 3: Won 2–0 in games vs Olofströms IK
	HockeyAllsvenskan qualifier		1st of 6	7–0–0–3	4,747	Promoted to HockeyAllsvenskan
2013–14	Tier 2	HockeyAllsvenskan	14th of 14	13–7–32	3,641
	HockeyAllsvenskan qualifier		2nd of 6	6–3–1	3,632	Saved from relegation
2014–15	Tier 2	HockeyAllsvenskan	6th of 14	19–14–19	3,552
		Playoff to SHL qualifier	4th of 6	1–2–2	5,118	Eliminated from play-off contention

External links

• IF Björklöven official website

Preceded by Färjestad BK

Swedish ice hockey champions 1987

Succeeded by Färjestad BK

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