Linkopings HC femminile
Linkopings HC femminile
v
Wikipedia - Linköping HC (women)
Linköping HC or LHC is an ice hockey team in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL). They are the representative women's ice hockey team of Linköping HC, a sports club based in Linköping, Östergötland, Sweden, and play at the Stångebro Ishall. LHC Dam won the Swedish Championship in 2014 and 2015.
History
In 2006, the Linköping HC organization committed to becoming the best club for women's ice hockey in Sweden, stating that the women's team would be one of the club’s elite teams, on equal footing with the men's team and the men's junior teams. The team made its debut in the group stage of the 2007–08 season of Division 1 (since renamed Damettan) and swept the eight-game series. Their early success earned the LHC Dam a spot in the top-tier, newly-restructured and renamed Riksserien (since renamed the Svenska damhockeyligan), where they finished the 2008 season in fourth place after losing the bronze medal game to Modo HK. The 2007–08 roster featured home-grown Swedish players, including veteran Sophie Westlund and rising stars 19 year old Jenni Asserholt and 16 year old Fanny Rask, alongside an impressive collection of young international talent, including Austrian national team phenom Denise Altmann and Slovak national team teammates, forward Iveta Karafiátová Frühauf and goaltender Zuzana Tomčíková.
In the 2008–09 Riksserien season, LHC Dam lost in the quarterfinals after finishing the regular season in fifth place. The team gradually increased their standing over the subsequent seasons, ranking fourth in 2010 and winning bronze in 2011.
The team won the Swedish Championship in 2014. Not content to rest on their laurels, Linköping went on to win all 28 regular season games in the 2014–15 season and successfully defended the Swedish Championship in the 2015 SDHL playoffs, defeating AIK in the second consecutive playoff finals.