The 2018–19 SDHL Season was the 12th season of the

Swedish Women's Hockey League The Swedish Women's Hockey League (), abbreviated SDHL, is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was established in 2007 as the by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and was renamed prior to the 2016–17 season. The league has ...

. The season began in September 2018 and ended in February 2019.

Luleå HF/MSSK Luleå Hockey/MSSK are a semi-professional ice hockey team in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL). They play in Luleå, a port city in northeastern Sweden, at Coop Norrbotten Arena. The team is the most successful in SDHL history, having b ...

were the regular season champions for the fourth season in a row, and defeated

Linköping HC Linköping Hockey Club, often known by its Acronym, initials LHC, or Colloquialism, colloquially among its fans as Cluben, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Linköping, founded in 1976. The home arena of the team is Saab Arena (for ...

3–2 in the playoff finals to be crowned playoff champions for the third time in the last four years.

Göteborg HC Göteborg Hockey Club, abbreviated as Göteborg HC or GHC, are an ice hockey club in Angered, a borough of Gothenburg () in southwestern Sweden. They played in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL), the top Swedish women's hockey league, durin ...

and

SDE Hockey SDE Hockey are an ice hockey club in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL). They play at Enebybergs Ishall in the Enebyberg community of Danderyd Municipality in Metropolitan Stockholm. History The club was formed in 2007 from the merger o ...

finished at the bottom of the table, but were able to avoid relegation to

Damettan Nationella Damhockeyligan () or NDHL is the second-highest women's ice hockey league in Sweden. It was previously known as the Damettan or Damettan i ishockey during 2015 to 2021, and Division 1 during 2007 to 2015. The league engages in active ...

in the playoffs to the SDHL.

League business

Partnerships

Prior to the beginning of the season, German company Axelent announced that they would redirect their sponsorship of

HV71 HV71 (), often referred to as just HV, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Jönköping, playing in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), the first tier of Swedish ice hockey. The team played in the 2008–09 Champions Hockey League ...

away from the Champions Hockey League and towards HV71's women's side, after the men's side failed to qualify for the CHL.

Broadcasting

12 regular season games were broadcast live by

C More C More Entertainment AB was a pay television company that previously operated as Canal+ (French TV channel), Canal+. It targeted Nordic countries and had a separate channel in Sweden (C More Film). The main competitors of C More Entertainment ...

Significant events

Pre-season

From 30 August to 2 September, the Damcup Umeå exhibition tournament was held in

Umeå Umeå ( , , , locally ; ; ; ; ) is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. Situated on the Ume River, Umeå is the largest Urban areas in Sweden, locality in Norrland and the t ...

, in northern Sweden, between

Modo Hockey Modo Hockey (or MoDo with uppercase letters) is a professional ice hockey club in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. The team currently plays in Sweden's second-tier league HockeyAllsvenskan after losing to HV71 after the play out following the 2024/25 se ...

, Damettan team

IF Björklöven 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 2024-25 season, but h ...

, and the Japanese national team. Luleå were crowned winners of the tournament after winning all three of their games. At the end of September, the first Champions Cup was held in New Jersey between Luleå and the Metropolitan Riveters, the reigning NWHL champions. Luleå won the cup with a 4–2 victory, although the Riveters were missing a number of players due to injuries.

Post-season

On 31 March 2019, the Canadian Women's Hockey League announced that it was folding. In response, the league's players announced a strike movement titled ForTheGame, which led to the creation of the

PWHPA The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for the promotion of professional women's ice hockey. It was founded in May 2019 following the dissolution of the Canadian Women's Hoc ...

. On 10 May, Kelty Apperson became the first ForTheGame player to sign a contract in Sweden, joining

. In July 2019, it was announced that the 2019 4 Nations Cup was due to be held in Luleå. In September, the Cup was cancelled due to the uncertainty surrounding the Swedish players' strike as well as the events in North America.

Standings

Each team played 36 regular season games, with three points being awarded for winning in regulation time, two points for winning in overtime or shootout, one point for losing in overtime or shootout, and zero points for losing in regulation time. At the end of the regular season, the team that finishes with the most points is crowned the league champion.

Regular season

Playoffs

References

External links

League website

Official season statistics
from the Swedish Ice Hockey Association {{DEFAULTSORT:2018-19 SDHL season

SDHL The Swedish Women's Hockey League (), abbreviated SDHL, is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was established in 2007 as the by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and was renamed prior to the 2016–17 season. The league ha ...

Women's ice hockey competitions in Sweden Swedish Women's Hockey League seasons