In our ongoing quest to present each of the Champions Hockey League's 48 clubs to you, we present you with HV71 Jonkoping. It is not an old club, but it hasn't taken long for it to become one of Sweden's most decorated, with the 21st century being especially kind to the club.

by Shaun Nicolaides

They’re not too old, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less of a force. HV71 Jonkoping, from Sweden, was only formed in 1971, but the club has embarked on an epic rise which has seen them sit at the top of the Swedish pile already four times. And you can be sure they’re hungry for success at Europe’s elite level.

Born of a merger

HV71 may not have a century's worth of history to its name, but it is really stamping its authority on European hockey, with the club without doubt being one of the best in Sweden at this moment in time. It all started on the 24 May 1971, when a merger between Jonkoping-based clubs Husqvarna IF and Vatterstads IF became one club. The new team was called HV71, taking the two first letters of the merging clubs together along with the year of its foundation. Indeed HV71 is now Jonkoping’s only remaining ice hockey club, and with the city being the 10th largest in Sweden, it’s not too surprising that the team is very well supported despite the Kinnarps Arena only holding 7,000 fans. They haven’t been occupying the Kinnarps Arena for that long, however. Right from their beginning in 1971 to 2000, HV71 called the Rosenlundshallen home, in what was the first ice arena to be erected in Sweden.

Things didn’t start off perfectly for HV71 though. Beginning life in the third tier of Swedish hockey, it took until 1975 for the team to make the step up to the second division. Four seasons were then spent there before a second-place finish in the 1978-79 season was enough to finally earn promotion to the Elitserien, but they didn’t settle in well. A wretched season in which the team picked up a meagre 20 points and won only 8 times out of a possible 36 saw the club go straight back down, but when they returned to the elite division for the 1985-86 season, we would see a completely different team.

Among the Elitserien's elite

In their first term back in the Elitserien, mainly thanks to forward Ivan Hansen who racked up 41 points in 35 regular season games added on to by two playoff markers, HV71 surprised everyone with advancing as far as the semi-finals. That campaign really was the turning point, with the club so far not leaving the Elitserien (or the SHL as it is known now) again, and in the following eight seasons the playoffs were reached a solid four times. What happened in 1995 though was the stuff of dreams. HV71 only just squeezed into the playoffs in eighth place of the regular season and were not expected to do anything in the playoffs at all. What a mistaken assumption that was. A 3-0 series sweep of Djurgarden Stockholm set the trend, and it all led up to the club claiming the Le Mat Trophy for the first time ever, seeing off the challenge of Brynas Gavle 3-2 in the final series. Interestingly, defenceman Per Gustafsson, Finn Marko Palo and Stefan Ornskog were all tied for 12 points in 13 playoff games.

While they had to wait another nine seasons before taking the crown of Swedish champions again in 2004, HV71 had a good time of it mixing it with the best, almost every year qualifying for the playoffs and always being there or thereabouts. In that 2003-04 season when they did become kings of Sweden for the second time, they were simply irresistible. For the first time in the club’s history they topped the regular season with a hefty 95 points, and in the playoffs they defeated Farjestad Karlstad 4-3 in a hard-fought slog of a final series.

Two more titles have followed since, in 2008 and most recently in 2010, and just like back in 2004 on both occasions HV71 won the regular season as well. And a lot of their success is all down to one man. Club legend Johan Davidsson, who has been with the club for each and every one of their championship wins, was simply instrumental. He holds just about every club record, which includes playing for the club more than anyone else with 920 appearances, and in playoff games alone he amassed a large total of 101 points.

Team facts

CHL seasons

2015-16: 1st in Group C, Round of 16
2014-15: 3rd in Group I

Click here for current information about the club.

NOTE: This article has been updated since its original publication.