Riksserien
Current season, competition or edition: 2016–17 Swedish Women's Hockey League season
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| Sport | Ice hockey |
|---|---|
| Claim to fame | Top tier of women's ice hockey in Sweden |
| Country | Sweden |
| Most recent champion(s) |
Djurgårdens IF |
| Relegation to | Allettan |
| Official website | www |
The Swedish Women's Hockey League (SWHL) (Swedish: Svenska damhockeyligan (SDHL), 2008-2016 Riksserien, is the elite league of women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was started in 2008, contains 8 teams and is organized by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association.
From the 2016-2017 season the series changed name to its current name
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 (Swedish: SM-slutspel Damer). 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 Allettan.
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Wikipedia