Huddinge IK

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Huddinge IK

Founded	1950
Home ice	Björkängshallen
Based in	Huddinge, Sweden
Colours	Red, white, blue
League	Division 1

Huddinge IK is a Swedish ice hockey team from Huddinge, a southern suburb of Stockholm. The team is currently playing in the third highest league in Sweden, Division 1.

Founded: 1950

Home arena: Björkängshallen (capacity 2,505)

Uniform colors: Red, white, blue

Swedish Championships won: 0

[edit] History

Originally started up as an ice hockey section of Huddinge IF for the 1946/47 season, refounded as an own club on January 8, 1950. The team advanced to the second level league in 1966, and in seasons 1975/76-78/79, 81/82-96/97 and 2002/03 (21 seasons) the club has participated in the qualifications for the Elitserien, never making it all the way. No other club, which has never made it all the way, has done so more times than Huddinge. A qualification play off game in 1989 versus Timrå IK was decided by a winning goal for Timrå 1:14 into the third overtime period, and was by then the longest Swedish hockey game ever played. The game is still among the top 10 longest games.

The last time the team was close to advancing, in the 1992-93 season, they moved their home game versus neighbors AIK to the Globe Arena and reached their spectator record of 12,487, the fourth-largest record for any Swedish club (the three larger ones being Frölunda HC - 23,192, Djurgårdens IF - 18,070 and AIK - 17,098). They also won the game (5-3) and gave their fans a memory for life. The game away versus AIK, about a month later, was tied 3-3, and had a spectator number of 13,124. These two games between AIK and Huddinge in 1993 are the two Swedish national games outside of the top division and the Swedish Championship competitions with the largest spectator numbers ever.

In the 1999/2000 and 2004/05 seasons, the team has been relegated to the present third level league, division 1, but both times there has been an instant comeback.

The team is most renowned as a "plant school" for the more established teams in the area. Famous Swedish ice hockey players such as Michael Nylander, Jan Mertzig, Mattias Norström have been fostered on the team.

In the 1953-54 season, when the club entered the third level league for the first time, it had a tremendously big name in Swedish ice hockey history on the team - Lars Ljungman, the Swedish ice hockey player who has scored the most goals in the same national game, 12 goals when Sweden beat Belgium 24-1 in the 1947 World Championships in Prague.

Peter Forsberg made his debut game with the senior team for his Swedish club MODO Hockey, when they played Huddinge away, one Sunday in March of 1990.