Frölunda Hockey Club, also known as the Frölunda Indians, is a Swedishprofessional ice hockey club based in Gothenburg. They play in the highest Swedish league, Swedish Hockey League, where they have played the majority of the seasons during the club's existence. The last time they played in the lower division, Allsvenskan, was in 1995. Frölunda have won the national championship title five times, in 1965, 2003, 2005, 2016 and 2019. The club was founded on 3 February 1938, as an ice hockey section in Västra Frölunda IF and became independent on 29 March 1984. Prior to the 1995/1996 season, the nickname Indians was adopted. This referring to the successful years of the 1960s, when fans started to call them the "Wild West". But as they didn't want a nickname like cowboys or something with firearms, Indians became the obvious choice. On 16 June 2004, the club shortened the name from Västra Frölunda Hockey Club to Frölunda Hockey Club. Frölunda's home venue is the Scandinavium arena in central Gothenburg, which has a capacity of 12,044 people. Frölundaborg is used when Scandinavium is occupied with other events. Frölunda's average home attendance has been the highest in the league for over a decade.
History
In 2003 Frölunda became the champions after a 38-year hiatus. The final game in Scandinavium on 7 April against Färjestad BK was ended by late season recruit Tomi Kallio in the third overtime period. In the 2004–05 season, the club's 60th anniversary and 20th as independent club, the team won the league title, by having the best record during the regular season, and the Swedish Championship. That particular year was notable because the National Hockey League had a labour stoppage due to negotiations between the league and the players association. Many professional hockey players who could not play in the NHL chose to play in European or North American leagues. The largest number of professional NHL players were in Sweden during the season, including Gothenburg native Daniel Alfredsson, who joined his hometown club for the season. This increased the quality of play and many observers said that Elitserien was the best league in the world during 2004–05. Frölunda set a new Elitserien record on 6 April 2006, by winning the Elitserien playoff semi-finals against Linköpings HC 4–3 after trailing the series 1–3. The season ended with a 2–4 defeat against Färjestads BK in the finals. The second game in the finals Ronnie Sundin played his 685th game for Frölunda becoming the player with most career games for the club. Frölunda is the biggest winner of the Champions Hockey League, with four titles in 2015–16, 2016–17, 2018–19 and 2019–20.
Season-by-season results
This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by Frölunda. For the full season-by-season history, see Frölunda HC seasons.
Frölunda Hockey have retired the numbers of four players, all on 3 March 2002. The number retired were; the number 13 worn by Lars Erik Lundvall, who spent eight seasons with Frölunda, all of them serving as team captain. The number 14 worn by Ronald "Sura Pelle" Pettersson, who spent seven seasons with Frölunda before suffering a career-ending injury on 14 December 1967. The duo of Lundvall and Pettersson was one of the reason behind Frölunda's success in the 60's and secured that hockey got a strong foothold in Gothenburg. The number 19 worn by Jörgen Pettersson during his two stints with Frölunda. Pettersson joined the club in 1970 and played ten seasons for the club before joining the St. Louis Blues of the NHL. After five seasons in the NHL he returned and played another three seasons for the club. The number 29 worn by Stefan Larsson during his sixteen seasons with Frölunda. With the exception of two seasons, Larsson played for Frölunda his entire professional career. Two Frölunda players have been inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation's Hall of Fame. Forward Ulf Sterner, played three seasons for Frölunda before becoming the first European-trained player to play in the NHL during his short sojourn with the New York Rangers during the 1964–65 NHL season; he was inducted in 2001. Forward Ronald "Sura Pelle" Pettersson, represented team Sweden in three olympic games and ten IIHF World Championships, totaling 252 games played for the national team; he was inducted in 2004. In 2003, former Frölunda players Christian Ruuttu and Jorma Salmi were inducted to the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame.
Franchise records and leaders
Career
Most games played: Ronnie Sundin, 739
Most seasons played: Ronnie Sundin, 16 and Stefan Larsson, 16
Most penalty minutes in a playoff season: Joel Lundqvist, 57
Team
Most points in a season: 112
Most wins in a season: 33
Most goals in a season: 181
Fewest goals against in a season: 96
Scoring leaders
These are the top-ten point-scorers of Frölunda HC since the 1975–76 season. Figures are updated after each completed regular season. Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; = current Frölunda HC player
