The 2018–19 SHL season was the 44th season of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). The regular season began in September 2018 and ended in March 2019. It was followed by the Swedish Championship playoffs and the relegation playoffs. The league consisted of 14 teams. The only new addition for this season was Timrå IK, who replaced Karlskrona HK after defeating them in the 2018 SHL qualifiers.

Färjestad BK won the regular season, and Frölunda HC won the Swedish Championship.

Teams

Team City Arena Capacity Brynäs IF Gävle Gavlerinken Arena 8,585 Djurgårdens IF Stockholm Hovet 8,094 Frölunda HC Gothenburg Scandinavium 12,044 Färjestad BK Karlstad Löfbergs Arena 8,647 HV71 Jönköping Kinnarps Arena 7,000 Linköpings HC Linköping Saab Arena 8,500 Luleå HF Luleå Coop Norrbotten Arena 6,300 Malmö Redhawks Malmö Malmö Arena 13,000 Mora IK Mora Jalas Arena 4,500 Rögle BK Ängelholm Lindab Arena 5,150 Skellefteå AIK Skellefteå Skellefteå Kraft Arena 6,001 Timrå IK Timrå NHK Arena 6,000 Växjö Lakers Växjö Vida Arena 5,700 Örebro HK Örebro Behrn Arena 5,150

Regular season Standings Each team plays 52 games, playing each of the other thirteen teams four times: twice on home ice, and twice away from home. Points are awarded for each game, where three points are 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.

Statistics

Scoring leaders

The following players led the league in points, at the conclusion of matches played on 14 March 2019. If two or more skaters are tied (i.e. same number of points, goals and played games), all of the tied skaters are shown.

Player Team Frölunda HC 46 12 38 50 –11 18 Skellefteå AIK 48 18 24 42 +9 20 Linköpings HC 49 8 34 42 +8 28 Färjestad BK 52 6 35 41 +16 47 HV71 52 16 24 40 +7 8 Malmö Redhawks 49 13 26 39 +2 18 Skellefteå AIK 51 19 19 38 +11 8 Rögle BK 46 12 26 38 +7 12 Brynäs IF 52 8 30 38 +2 18 Färjestad BK 46 17 20 37 +17 49

Leading goaltenders The following goaltenders led the league in goals against average, provided that they have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, at the conclusion of matches played on 14 March 2019.

Player Team Luleå HF 42 2498:16 26 6 10 70 5 93.10 1.68 Djurgårdens IF 39 2317:50 22 5 12 72 3 92.90 1.86 Växjö Lakers 35 2081:39 16 3 15 69 4 91.88 1.99 Färjestad BK 26 1485:13 15 3 6 50 3 92.63 2.02 Färjestad BK 31 1644:35 17 2 9 57 5 91.97 2.08 Frölunda HC 28 1586:07 17 1 8 56 1 91.82 2.12 Malmö Redhawks 37 2119:04 18 5 11 76 1 92.39 2.15 Skellefteå AIK 32 1901:16 14 5 13 69 4 91.67 2.18 HV71 34 1999:11 15 2 17 78 6 90.98 2.34 Linköpings HC 36 2038:53 18 2 14 85 2 91.67 2.50

Playoffs Ten teams qualify for the playoffs: the top six teams in the regular season have a bye to the quarterfinals, while teams ranked seventh to tenth meet each other (7 versus 10, 8 versus 9) in a preliminary playoff round.

Playoff bracket In the first round the 7th-ranked team will meet the 10th-ranked team and the 8th-ranked team will meet the 9th-ranked team for a place in the second round. In the second round, the top-ranked team will meet the lowest-ranked winner of the first round, the 2nd-ranked team will face the other winner of the first round, the 3rd-ranked team will face the 6th-ranked team, and the 4th-ranked team will face the 5th-ranked team. In the third round, the highest remaining seed is matched against the lowest remaining seed. In each round the higher-seeded team is awarded home advantage. In the first round the meetings are played as best-of-three series and the rest is best-of-seven series that follows an alternating home team format: the higher-seeded team will play at home for games 1 and 3 (plus 5 and 7 if necessary), and the lower-seeded team will be at home for game 2 and 4 (plus 6 if necessary).

Eighth-finals The teams ranked 7 and 10, and the teams ranked 8 and 9, respectively, will face each other in a best-of-three series in order to qualify for the quarter-finals. The better-ranked teams in the two series will receive home advantage, i.e. two home games, if necessary. The two winners will take the two remaining quarter-final spots.

(7) Växjö Lakers vs. (10) Örebro HK

(8) HV71 vs. (9) Rögle BK

Quarter-finals

(1) Färjestad BK vs. (8) HV71 Game 5 of this series was the second-longest Elitserien/SHL playoff game, with Oskar Steen's game-winning goal coming after 57:01 of overtime.

(2) Luleå HF vs. (7) Växjö Lakers

(3) Frölunda HC vs. (6) Malmö Redhawks

(4) Djurgårdens IF vs. (5) Skellefteå AIK

Semi-finals (1) Färjestad BK vs. (4) Djurgårdens IF

(2) Luleå HF vs. (3) Frölunda HC

Finals (3) Frölunda HC vs. (4) Djurgårdens IF

Statistics Playoff scoring leaders The following players led the league in points, at the conclusion of matches played on 2 May 2019. If two or more skaters are tied (i.e. same number of points, goals and played games), all of the tied skaters are shown.

Player Team Frölunda HC 16 6 13 19 +7 4 Frölunda HC 16 4 13 17 +5 6 Frölunda HC 16 8 8 16 +10 8 Djurgårdens IF 19 6 8 14 –1 58 Frölunda HC 15 5 9 14 +4 8 Frölunda HC 16 2 12 14 +11 2 Frölunda HC 16 6 7 13 +6 35 Färjestad BK 14 5 8 13 +7 28 Frölunda HC 16 5 8 13 +9 4 Djurgårdens IF 19 5 8 13 –3 10

Playoff leading goaltenders These are the leaders in GAA and save percentage among goaltenders who played at least 40% of the team's minutes. The table is sorted by GAA, and the criteria for inclusion are bolded. Updated as of 2 May 2019.

Player Team Frölunda HC 13 748:15 9 3 25 3 92.67 2.00 HV71 9 618:25 5 4 21 0 92.76 2.04 Färjestad BK 13 823:39 7 6 30 0 91.10 2.19 Luleå HF 10 617:31 5 5 23 1 91.32 2.23 Skellefteå AIK 5 254:17 2 2 11 1 90.35 2.60

SHL awards Guldhjälmen: Jacob Josefson, Djurgårdens IF Guldpucken: Honken Trophy: Adam Reideborn, Djurgårdens IF Håkan Loob Trophy: Emil Bemström, Djurgårdens IF Rookie of the Year: Emil Bemström, Djurgårdens IF Salming Trophy: Erik Gustafsson, Luleå HF Stefan Liv Memorial Trophy: Ryan Lasch, Frölunda HC Guldpipan: Mikael Sjöqvist

Attendances

The SHL clubs by average home league attendance in the 2018–19 season:

# Club Average 1 Frölunda HC 10,071 2 Djurgårdens IF 7,355 3 Färjestad BK 7,231 4 Malmö Redhawks 6,888 5 HV71 6,550 6 Linköpings HC 6,079 7 Luleå HF 5,363 8 Brynäs IF 5,231 9 Örebro HK 5,178 10 Växjö Lakers 4,691 11 Skellefteå AIK 4,523 12 Rögle BK 4,424 13 Mora IK 4,070 14 Timrå IK 3,932

Sources:

References

External links