IF Björklöven

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IF Björklöven

City	Umeå, Sweden
League	HockeyAllsvenskan
Founded	1970 (1970)
Home arena	Umeå Arena
Colours	Green, yellow
Head coach	Jens Öhman

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 2013–14 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. Some notable players from Björklöven are Calle Johansson, Ulf Dahlén, Tore Öqvist and twins Patrik Sundström and Peter Sundström.

The team has recently had many promising young players, including Alexander Hellström, Alexander Sundström, Patrik Nevalainen, Daniel Rahimi and Kristofer Berglund. Due to lack of funds however, Björklöven lost all of these young players to other teams, although the first three has since rejoined the team.

Notable players

Retired numbers

Other notable players

References

"Retired Numbers". European Hockey.net. Retrieved January 23, 2007.

External links

IF Björklöven official website
Green Devils supporter's club
TCIM-The Club is Mine, independent fansite

Preceded by Färjestad BK	Swedish ice hockey champions 1987	Succeeded by Färjestad BK

v t e HockeyAllsvenskan

Teams	Almtuna Asplöven Björklöven Djurgården Karlskoga Karlskrona Malmö Mora Oskarshamn Rögle Södertälje Timrå Troja/Ljungby Västerås

Arenas	ABB Arena Arena Oskarshamn Arena Polarica AXA Sports Center E.ON Arena FM Mattsson Arena Hovet Lindab Arena Malmö Arena Metallåtervinning Arena Nobelhallen Sunnerbohov Telenor Arena Karlskrona Umeå Arena

Allsvenskan seasons	1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05

HockeyAllsvenskan Seasons	2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14

Related topics	Swedish Ice Hockey Association Kvalserien (HockeyAllsvenskan) Swedish Hockey League Kvalserien Guldpucken J20 SuperElit National men's team National women's team

See also: IIHF IIHF Continental Cup IIHF European Champions Cup

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