| Team: | IF Björklöven |
| Bg Color: | background:#FFFFFF; border-top:#006241 5px solid; border-bottom:#f0d300 5px solid; |
| Text Color: |
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| Logosize: | 190px |
| City: | Umeå, Sweden |
| League: | HockeyAllsvenskan |
| Coach: | Viktor Stråhle |
| Captain: | Fredric Andersson |
| Website: | bjorkloven.com |
| Name1: | Seasons in Sweden's highest division |
| Dates1: | 26 |
| Name2: | Swedish Championship Finals appearances |
| Dates2: | 3 |
| Le Mat Trophies: | 1987 |
IF Björklöven (often simply referred to as 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, becoming national champions in 1987).
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 ice 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 since then have not been able to establish themselves permanently in the Elitserien again. Instead, they have mostly played in the second-tier league Allsvenskan, save 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.
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 got the bankruptcy allayed a month later. Despite huge further efforts by the club to obtain an elite license to play in HockeyAllsvenskan the following season, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association (SIHA) decided not to give Björklöven an 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.
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 Hellström, Sundström and Nevalainen later rejoined the team.
Björklöven's women's side currently plays in Damettan, in the north division of the second tier of Swedish women's hockey. Ahead of the 2018–19 SDHL season, the club hosted the Damcup Umeå exhibition tournament between Björklöven, Luleå HF/MSSK, Modo Hockey, and the Japanese national team. Luleå were crowned winners of the tournament after winning all three of their games.[1]
| List of Björklöven seasons | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Level | Division | Record | Notes | Ref | ||
| Position | W-OTW-OTL-L | ||||||
| This is a partial list, featuring the five most recent seasons. For a more complete list, see List of IF Björklöven seasons | |||||||
| 2017–18 | Tier 2 | HockeyAllsvenskan | 5th of 14 | 20–6–8–18 | 3,902 | [2] | |
| Playoff to SHL qualifiers | 3rd of 6 | 2–2–0–1 | 4,028 | [3] | |||
| 2018–19 | Tier 2 | HockeyAllsvenskan | 10th of 14 | 16–6–8–22 | 3,879 | [4] | |
| 2019–20 | Tier 2 | HockeyAllsvenskan | 1st of 14 | 36–5–3–8 | 4,754 | [5] | |
| HockeyAllsvenskan Finals | – | 1–0–1–0 | 5,400 | Playoffs cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic | [6] | ||
| 2020–21 | Tier 2 | HockeyAllsvenskan | 3rd of 14 | 26–6–3–17 | 23 | [7] | |
| HockeyAllsvenskan Playoffs | – | 6–2–3–5 | 56 | Won in quarterfinals 3–1 in games vs Mora IK Won in semifinals 4–3 in games vs BIK Karlskoga Lost in finals 1–4 in games vs Timrå IK | [8] | ||
| 2021–22 | Tier 2 | HockeyAllsvenskan | 4th of 14 | 26–7–6–13 | 3,855 | [9] | |
| HockeyAllsvenskan Playoffs | – | 8–2–2–6 | 5,176 | Won in quarterfinals 4–1 in games vs Västerås IK Won in semifinals 4–3 in games vs Modo Hockey Lost in finals 2–4 in games vs HV71 | [10] | ||
| width=40px | No. | width=130px | Player | width=40px | Position | width=150px | Career | width=150px | No. retirement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 1991–2003 | – | |||||||
| 17 | 1978–1982, 1992–1994 | – | |||||||
| 23 | 1977–1983, 1985–1992 | – | |||||||
| 27 | Tore Ökvist[11] | 1974–1988 | – |