Swedish Women's Hockey League

The Swedish Women's Hockey League (Swedish: Svenska damhockeyligan), abbreviated SDHL, is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was established in 2007 as the Riksserien by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and was renamed prior to the 2016–17 season.[1][2] The league has ten teams and employs a system of promotion and relegation with the Damettan. The unexpected withdrawal of Göteborg HC after playing only thirteen games of the 2022–23 season caused the number of teams to decrease to nine for the remainder of that season.[3]

Swedish Women's Hockey League
Svenska damhockeyligan (Swedish)
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2023–24 SDHL season
FormerlyRiksserien (2007–2016)
SportIce hockey
Founded2007 (2007)
FounderSwedish Ice Hockey Association
Inaugural season2007–08
PresidentAgne Bengtsson
No. of teams10
Country Sweden
Most recent
champion(s)		Luleå HF/MSSK
(2022–23)
Most titlesLuleå HF/MSSK (6)
TV partner(s)C More Sport, SVT
Relegation toDamettan
Related
competitions		Swedish Hockey League
Official websitewww.sdhl.se

Bodychecking was allowed for the 2022–23 season.[4]

Format

When a game is tied after regulation, a sudden death overtime is played with only four skaters per team for maximum 10 minutes (or 20 minutes in the playoffs). If the game is still tied after overtime, the winner is decided by game winning shots.

The regular season is a double round-robin tournament, with each team playing twice at home and twice away against every other team, resulting in a 36-game regular season per team. After the regular season, the top six teams qualify for the Women's Swedish Championship playoffs (Swedish: SM-slutspel damer). The two teams with the best regular season records in the SDHL are given a bye to the semifinals, with the remaining four qualified teams starting in the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, team 3 gets to pick their choice of opponent between teams 5 and 6, leaving the remaining club to meet team 4. In the semifinals the first ranked team chooses an opponent from the two winners of the quarterfinals. The playoffs are all best-of-three series, with the higher ranked team starting with one match away, followed by the remaining two at home.

The two teams with the worst records in the regular season are forced to play a qualifier to defend their spots in the SDHL against challengers from Damettan.

Teams
Location of SDHL teams in Sweden

From the formation of the SDHL in 2007, Luleå HF/MSSK have been the most successful club, winning six Swedish Championships. Luleå has been the most successful regular season team, finishing on top of the league six times. Modo Hockey Dam was the first team from outside the Stockholm area to win the championship with their victory in 2012.

2023–24 teams
Team City Arena Head coach Captain
AIK Solna Ritorps Ishall Conny Olausson Vilma Nilsson
Brynäs IF Gävle Monitor ERP Arena Filip Eriksson Maja Nylén Persson
Djurgårdens IF Stockholm Hovet Rickard Hårdstam Brette Pettet
Frölunda HC Gothenburg Frölundaborg Erika Holst Michelle Karvinen
HV71 Jönköping Husqvarna Garden Ulf Hall Sanni Hakala
Leksands IF Leksand Tegera Arena Jordan Colliton Anna Purschke
Linköping HC Linköping Stångebro Ishall Jan Bylesjö Sara Hjalmarsson
Luleå HF/MSSK Luleå Coop Norrbotten Arena Jens Själin Jenni Hiirikoski
MoDo Hockey Örnsköldsvik Hägglunds Arena Jared Cipparone Ebba Berglund
SDE Hockey Danderyd Enebybergs Ishall Nicklas Stensson Julie Zwarthoed

Sources: [5][6]

Previous winners

Regular season champions

Swedish Champions (playoff winners)

Attendance

While average attendance in the SDHL has been significantly lower than other professional leagues in Sweden and the Premier Hockey Federation in North America, attendance has tended towards increasing as the league receives greater investment and promotion, and as women's clubs have been less neglected by their parent organisations. There exists a considerable disparity in attendance between clubs, with Luleå HF/MSSK having led the league in attendance ever single year since the club's formation, often with almost ten time greater attendance than the worst attended club. Playoff attendance has also tended to be much higher than regular season attendance, averaging almost 900 per match in 2017–18 and 2018–19.

SDHL Regular Season Attendance
SeasonAverageHighestLowest
2013–14 Riksserien season114Munksund Skuthamn SK (205)Segeltorps IF (59)
2014–15 Riksserien season102Munksund Skuthamn SK (132)IF Sundsvall Hockey (54)
2015–16 Riksserien season141Luleå HF/MSSK (468)IF Sundsvall Hockey (57)
2016–17 SDHL season179Luleå HF/MSSK (542)SDE Hockey (54)
2017–18 SDHL season192Luleå HF/MSSK (442)SDE Hockey (65)
2018–19 SDHL season234Luleå HF/MSSK (831)SDE Hockey (42)
2019–20 SDHL season178Luleå HF/MSSK (539)SDE Hockey (48)

League records
As of 21 March 2023

Individual records
  • Most goals in a season: Andrea Dalen, 47 goals (36 games, 2015–16)
  • Most assists in a season: Lara Stalder, 55 assists (33 games, 2021–22)
  • Most points in a season: Lara Stalder, 89 points (33 games, 2021–22)
  • Most points in a season, defenceman: Sidney Morin, 65 points (36 games, 2020–21)
  • Most penalty minutes in a season: Jenn Wakefield, 90 PIM (31 games, 2020–21)
  • Most shutouts in a season: Florence Schelling, 10 shutouts (31 games, 2017–18)
  • Best save percentage in a season, minimum 1/3 of games played: Kim Martin Hasson, .956 (17 games, 2014–15)
  • Beat goals against average in a season, minimum 1/3 of games played: Frida Axell, 1.00 GAA (14 games, 2022–23)

Club records
  • Most points in a season: 99, HV71 in 2019–20[7]
  • Highest attendance in a regular season match: 6,220[8] – Luleå HF/MSSK vs. AIK Hockey, 16 November 2018
  • Highest attendance in a playoff match: 7,765[9] – Brynäs IF vs. Luleå HF/MSSK at Monitor ERP Arena, 7 April 2022 (Game 5 of the 2022 Swedish Championship finals)

All-time leading scorers

The top-ten point-scorers (goals + assists) in SDHL history.

Note: Nat = Nationality; Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game

Points
NatPlayerPosGPGAPtsP/G
Austria Denise AltmannRW3372772865631.67
Sweden Emma NordinC4062272815081.25
Switzerland Lara StalderC1911802224022.10
Sweden Erika GrahmLW/C3851792123911.02
Sweden Lisa JohanssonRW/LW4562321573890.85
Norway Line Bialik ØienLW/RW3221862003861.20
Norway Andrea Schjelderup DalenLW2831991453441.22
Denmark Josefine JakobsenC3071581853431.12
Sweden Anna BorgqvistC/LW3711411973380.91
Sweden Fanny RaskLW3971421923340.84

Source: [10]

See also

References
  1. Edwinsson, Lisa (18 March 2016). "Ny riksorganisation ska lyfta damhockeyn". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  2. Otlu, Diljen (18 March 2016). "Så ska svensk damhockey lyfta". SVT Sport (in Swedish). Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  3. Karlsson, Mattias (2 November 2022). "Drar sig ur SDHL – mitt under säsongen". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  4. Kennedy, Ian (21 May 2022). "Swedish Women's Hockey League to introduce Bodychecking". The Hockey News. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  5. Jay, Michelle; Murphy, Mike (10 September 2020). "2020-21 SDHL Preview". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  6. "Svenska damhockeyligan (SDHL (W)) 2023-2024 Standings". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  7. "SDHL | stats.swehockey.se".
  8. Funqvist, Sixten (16 November 2018). "Nytt publikrekord i SDHL". HockeySverige (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  9. Hägglund, Johannes (7 April 2022). "Luleå/MSSK vinner SM-guld 2022". SDHL.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  10. "SDHL (W) - All-time Totals Regular Season Player Stats". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
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