Women's Hockey in Sweden


Team Sweden vs Team Canada, at 1994 World Championships


I would like to express my gratitude towards the people who helped to put this information together. Much thanks to Fredrik Hjelm (Fredrik.Hjelm@PET.uu.se) for providing the second part of the "General Information" section, and Ulla Skiden (ulla@it.kth.se) for providing information about the "upcoming star." All other information in this page was provided by Ivar Grahn (ivar.grahn@kiconsulting.se). Thank you very much for your time and effort.

If anyone has any additional information that you'd like to see included in this page, please send it to me at andria@whockey.com.

If you are female and wan't to play icehockey in Sweden, then contact Svenska Ishockey Förbundet and they will help you contact your closest team.

Information about the world championships can be found at Hockey VM.


Page Index

This page contains the following sections. Click to go to these sections in this page:


International Hockey

World Championships

By placing among the top 5 teams at the 1997 World Championship, Sweden qualified to compete in the first ever Olympics for women's hockey. They placed fifth at the Olympics. Here are some pictures of Team Sweden players from the 1997 World Championship.

Sweden has competed in all IIHF World Championships to date. To qualify to attend the World Championship, Sweden must finish in the top 5 teams at the European A Championship. Sweden won the silver medal at the 1995 European A Championship, and the gold medal at the 1996 European A Championship!

Here is a link that provides the results of some games played by the Swedish Women's National team.

Team Sweden also competes in the Four Nations' Cup. This championship features some of the top countries in women's hockey: Canada, USA, Finland, and Sweden.

European Championships

Provided below is more detailed information about how Sweden did at the last two European A Championships. Here is a link to the 1995 Team Sweden roster and Sweden's results at the 1995 European A Championship.

USA visited Sweden to play 4 exhibition games during the summer of 1996. To see the results of this exhibition play, go to this 1996 Sweden Summer Tour article.


Swedish Hockey Web Site Results


1998 Olympic Game Results

February 8 1998: 12:00 Sweden 0 -vs- Finland 6
February 9 1998: 16:00 USA 7 -vs- Sweden 1
February 11 1998: 12:00 Sweden 3 -vs- Canada 5
February 12 1998: 12:00 China 3 -vs- Sweden 1
February 13 1998: Day Off
February 14 1998: 12:00 Japan 0 -vs- Sweden 5

Here is the Team Sweden Olympic roster.


Exhibition Games leading up to the 2001 WWC

Jan 22, 2001 7:00 p.m. Canada vs Sweden, Hanna 4-0 (1-0,3-0,0-0)
Jan 24, 2001 7:00 p.m. Canada vs Sweden, Cranbrook 8-0 (3-0,3-0,2-0)
Jan 25, 2001 7:00 p.m. Canada vs Sweden, Trail 8-0 (2-0,6-0,0-0)
Jan 27, 2001 7:00 p.m. Canada vs Sweden, Kelowna 4-1 (2-0,2-0,0-1)
Jan 29, 2001 7:00 p.m. Canada vs Sweden, Golden 9-2 (1-1,4-1,4-0)
Feb 8, 2001 7:00 p.m. Sweden vs Finland, Sandviken, Sweden
Feb 9, 2001 7:00 p.m. Sweden vs Finland, Gävle, Sweden
Feb 10, 2001 6:00 p.m. Sweden vs Finland, Norrtälje, Sweden


Exhibition Games leading up to the Olympics

Sept 5 1997: USA 5 -vs- Sweden 1 (Furudal, Sweden)
Sept 7 1997: USA 5 -vs- Sweden 3 (Orsa, Sweden)
Sept 8 1997: USA 14 -vs- Sweden 1 (Gnesta, Sweden)

Nov 12-20 97: ***Tour of Finland***
Nov 12 1997: Finland 5 -vs- Sweden 0 (Lahti, Finland)
Nov 13 1997: Canada 5 -vs- Sweden 3 (Vierumaki, Finland)
Nov 16 1997: Finland 3 -vs- Sweden 2 (Tikkakoski, Finland)
Nov 17 1997: Sweden 2 -vs- Canada 5 (Vierumaki, Finland)
Nov 20 1997: Finland 1 -vs- Canada 6 (Matinkyla, Finland)

Jan 1997: Finland 10 -vs- Sweden 0

Feb 4 1997: Canada 1 -vs- Sweden 1 (Nagano, Japan)


General Information

There are about 1000 female players of all ages. I've been told that there has been an increase of about 10% per year. Click here for a map of women's hockey teams in Sweden. [Thanks to Ivar for labeling this map and sending it to me.]
-- Ivar Grahn (ivar.grahn@kiconsulting.se)

Sweden's first team for women was MoDo AIK, back in 1969. The first regular series started in 1981, and it became part of the Swedish hockey federation in 1984. Goalie Annika Ahlen is the youngest Swedish athlete to ever participate on a national team. She was 15 when she played her first game for the "Three Crowns." The "TV-Puck" is a tournament that started in 1959 as an experiment. Today it's still here and it is the most important tournament for players under 16. Erika Holt who plays for the "Veddige Hockey Club" was the first girl to play in the TV-Puck tournament.
-- Fredrik Hjelm (Fredrik.Hjelm@PET.uu.se)

I thought you might want to know exactly what Tre Kronor, or in english, Three Crowns, stands for. The three crowns on the players chest (not only in icehockey, thos goes for almost every sport Sweden participates in) stands for Sweden, Norway and Denmark, from the days when Sweden was a great power. The three crowns is still used, in Stockholm there are a big, golden three crowns on the roof of the city hall.
-- Andreas Magnusson (magnus@mbox355.swipnet.se>


Concurrence with ice time of male teams

In many places it is very very difficult to start Women Hockey.

... some even think that girls aren't built to play hockey. Conservatism!!


Youth Hockey

If a girl wants to start playing hockey when she is 10-14 years old, in general, she'll have to play with the boys (although there may be some girls hockey).

In Stockholm they have a tournament called St Eriks Cup for juniors born 86-79 and for the first time they will have a separate girls' division with 6 teams. There's also girls on some of the boy's teams. In the women leagues there are some pretty young girls playing. This causes a problem because in Sweden juniors up to 15 years are not allowed to have body contact, however body contact is permitted in women's hockey in Sweden. So, what happens when a girl under 15 plays with older girls??? Not body check her ? :-)

In Sweden we have a Junior District Competition for players up to 15 years old. It is held in a different cities each year. This fall there was a 15 year old girl playing for the Halland district. She did play very well.


An Upcoming Star

I have just read all the text about Swedish women's hockey and I feel a very strong urge to tell you about a little girl I know. She plays hockey on the same team as my son. Her name is Evelina Samuelsson. She's 11 years old and is a magnificent hockey player! She has been playing with the boys since she was three years old and trains between August to April. Although quite a few fathers of players on the team mildly protested in the beginning, she is one of the best players on the team. She's such an impressive girl, such an athlete and ice hockey artist, that I really hope that she gets a chance to develop.

I just found out in December 1999 that Evelina has made the Swedish women's national team, at only 15 years of age.

-- Ulla Skiden (ulla@it.kth.se)


Swedish Ice Hockey Federation

The Swedish Ice hockey Federation can be contacted as follws:
Address: (Rvkerigatan 10, Hus 21) Box 5204. S-121 16 Johanneshov.
Telephone: 08-39 85 80, FAX: 08-659 07 14.
Open Mon., to Fri., 09.00 to 12.00 hours, and from 13.00 to 16.00 hours.


Women's Hockey within Sweden


Swedish Hockey Pictures:


Photo: Pernilla Burholm (defense), Annica Ahlen (goalie), and Anne Ferm (forward).

I've found an article about Women's Hockey in a Swedish book by Arne Norlin. The book is called "Hockey - The tough guy's play," or in Swedish "Hockey - De tuffa lirarnas spel." The article, "The new faces of the Three Crowns" (the Three Crowns is the nick-name of the Swedish national team) also has a nice photo of three Swedish women hockey players (shown here); Pernilla Burholm (defense), Annica Ahlen (goalie), and Anne Ferm (forward). All three play on the national team.
-- Ivar Grahn (ivar.grahn@kiconsulting.se)


Swedish Hockey Links:


Hockey Links for Sweden:


Links for Sweden:


National Federation


This page is maintained by © 1998 Andria Hunter (andria@whockey.com).

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