Swedish Women's Hockey League

The Swedish Women's Hockey League (Swedish: Svenska damhockeyligan (SDHL), previously Riksserien) is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was established in 2007 by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and has ten teams.

Swedish Women's Hockey League
Svenska damhockeyligan  (Swedish)
Most recent season or competition:
2020–21 SDHL season
FormerlyRiksserien (2008-2016)
SportIce hockey
Founded2007
FounderSwedish Ice Hockey Association
Inaugural season2007–08
PresidentAgne Bengtsson
Claim to fameTop tier of women's ice hockey in Sweden
No. of teams10
Country Sweden
Most recent
champion(s)		Luleå HF/MSSK (3rd title)
Most titlesSegeltorps IF & Luleå HF/MSSK (3 titles each)
TV partner(s)C More Sport, SVT
Relegation toDamettan
Related
competitions		Swedish Hockey League
Official websitesdhl.se

The league decided to change its name from Riksserien to the Swedish Women's Hockey League prior to the 2016–17 season.[1]

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 and Segletorps IF have been the most successful clubs, both winning three Swedish Championships. Luleå has been the most successful regular season team, finishing on top of the league four times. Modo Hockey was the first team from outside the Stockholm area to win the championship with their victory in 2012.

2020–21 teams
Team City Arena Capacity
AIK Solna Ulriksdals Ishall
Brynäs IF Gävle Monitor ERP Arena 7,909
Djurgårdens IF Stockholm Hovet 8,094
Göteborg HC Gothenburg Angered arena
HV71 Jönköping Kinnarps Arena 7,000
Leksands IF Leksand Tegera Arena 7,650
Linköping HC Linköping Stångebro Ishall 8,500
Luleå HF/MSSK Luleå Coop Norrbotten Arena 6,300
Modo Hockey Örnsköldsvik Fjällräven Center 7,600
SDE Hockey Danderyd Enebybergs Ishall

Sources:[2][3]

Previous Winners

SDHL regular season champions

SDHL Swedish champions (playoff winners)

Attendance

While average attendance in the SDHL has been significantly lower than other professional leagues in Sweden and the National Women's Hockey League 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)

[4]

League records

Individual records

Club records

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;   = currently active SDHL player

Points
NatPlayerPosGPGAPtsP/G
Denise AltmannRW3372772865631.671
Emma NordinC3341832094021.204
Line Bialik ØienLW/RW2911791913701.271
Erika GrahmLW/C3571741933671.028
Anna BorgqvistC3371381893270.970
Lisa JohanssonLW/RW3571911243150.882
Michelle KarvinenLW/RW1521411733142.066
Fanny RaskLW3611331733060.848
Andrea Schjelderup DalenLW2241731182911.299
Pernilla WinbergC/LW2031051772821.389

Sources:[6]

See also

References
  1. Lisa Edwinsson (18 March 2016). "Ny riksorganisation ska lyfta damhockeyn". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  2. Jay, Michelle; Murphy, Mike (2020-09-10). "2020-21 SDHL Preview". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  3. "Svenska damhockeyligan (SDHL (W)) – 2020-2021 Standings". eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  4. https://stats.swehockey.se/ScheduleAndResults/Overview/11495
  5. https://hockeysverige.se/2018/11/16/nytt-publikrekord-sdhl
  6. "All Time Regular Season Player Stats for the SDHL". eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
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