Swedish Women's Hockey League

The Swedish Women's Hockey League ( (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.
The league decided to change its name from Riksserien to the Swedish Women's Hockey League prior to the 2016–17 season.
==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 28-game regular season per team. After the regular season, the top six teams qualify for the Women's Swedish Championship playoffs (). The two teams with the best regular season records in Riksserien 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 Riksserien against challengers from Damettan.
==Current clubs (2020-21)==
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.
Team 	City 	Arena 	Capacity
AIK 	Solna, Stockholm 	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, Stockholm	Enebybergs Ishall 	
== Previous Winners ==
===Previous SDHL regular season winners===
*2008 – AIK IF
*2009 – Segeltorps IF
*2010 – Segeltorps IF
*2011 – Segeltorps IF
*2012 – Brynäs IF
*2013 – MODO Hockey
*2014 – MODO Hockey
*2015 – Linköping HC
*2016 – Luleå HF/MSSK
*2017 – Luleå HF/MSSK
*2018 – Luleå HF/MSSK
*2019 – Luleå HF/MSSK
*2020 – HV71
===Previous SDHL playoff winners (Swedish champions)===
*2008 – Segeltorps IF
*2009 – AIK IF
*2010 – Segeltorps IF
*2011 – Segeltorps IF
*2012 – MODO Hockey
*2013 – AIK IF
*2014 – Linköping HC
*2015 – Linköping HC
*2016 – Luleå HF/MSSK
*2017 – Djurgårdens IF
*2018 – Luleå HF/MSSK
*2019 – Luleå HF/MSSK
*2020 – Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden
==See also==
* Women's ice hockey in Sweden
==References==
==External links==
* League website
 
Sweden
Category:Ice hockey leagues in Europe
Category:Ice hockey leagues in Sweden
Category:Established in 2008