Swiss Women's Hockey League A

Swiss Women's Hockey League A

Current season	2016/17
sport	ice Hockey
abbreviation	SWHL A
Association	Swiss Ice Hockey Federation
League foundation	1989
Teams	6th
Country countries	Switzerland
Title holder	ZSC Lions
Record champions	ZSC / Grasshopper (8)
Website	regioleague.swiss-icehockey.ch
↓ SWHL B

The Swiss Women's Hockey League A (until 2014 performance class A , LKA or LK A for short) is the highest women's ice hockey division in Switzerland . It was founded in 1989 by the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation . The reigning champion is the ZSC Lions women's team .

history

The first women's ice hockey team in Switzerland was founded in 1980 in Friborg as "La Vannerie". Over the next four years, another eight teams emerged, which from 1985 played off the group championship in two groups . In 1984 women were accepted into the Swiss Ice Hockey Association (SEHV). From 1987 the Swiss championship title was played, the first Swiss women champions were the EHC Kloten Specials .

→ Main article : Swiss champions (ice hockey)

In addition to playing in the league, the "Swiss Selection" was founded at the end of the 1980s, a national selection team of the country's best players, which took part in the first unofficial "World Tournament" in Toronto in April 1987. The Swiss national ice hockey team for women emerged from this team .

In 1988 there were a total of 18 women's teams in Switzerland with around 350 licensed players.

In 1989 the game operation was divided into two performance classes (LK), LK A with six participants and LK B with 17 teams. The LK B was played in three groups, western, central and eastern Switzerland. With the increasing professionalism, foreign players were also increasingly used in Switzerland from 1989 onwards.

A year later, the official Swiss championship title of the SEHV was played for the first time. Before the season 1995/96, the total of 29 teams of Switzerland were divided into three performance categories, the LK A and B, each with six clubs and the new and LK C . The latter was made up of 17 clubs that competed against each other in three regional relays.

Between 1995 and 2001 the top two divisions were partly as a National League A , respectively, National League B , respectively. In the final of the 1998/99 season, EV Zug and SC Reinach met . EV Zug won the championship title for the first time. The DHC Lyss could not intervene in the title race after an unsuccessful preliminary round. The EHC Biel could not establish itself as a climber in the LK A and was determined early as a relegation. In 1999 the EHC Illnau-Effretikon made it up from performance class B to the top division.

In the 2001/02 season, the championship of LK A was held for the first time as a final tournament with four participants. Last year's champions SC Reinach prevailed in the final against DHC Lyss after a 5-0 lead just under 5: 4. A year later, the same club managed the title hat trick with a squad of only nine players and another final win against DHC Lyss.

Since the 2005/06 season, the Swiss champions have been played in the play-offs in the best of three mode. Since then, the league has been dominated by HC Lugano , whose players have been champions four times. In the 2007/08 season, DHC Langenthal became Swiss champions.

Since the 2010/11 season, the Swiss champions have been played in the play-offs in the best of five mode. Since then, the HC Lugano Ladies and the ZSC Lions women have faced each other in the final . In the 2012/2013 season, for the first time in the history of the LKA, there was a five-game final. The ZSC Lions managed the feat of catching up a 2-0 deficit and then also becoming champions.

A total of 35 teams took part in the game in 2013: In performance classes A and B with six and eight teams, respectively, the matches were played nationwide. Performance class C comprised three regional groups: Eastern Switzerland (seven clubs), Central Switzerland (seven clubs) and Western Switzerland (seven clubs).

Before the 2014/15 season, the league system in Swiss women's ice hockey was renamed from performance class A - C to Swiss Women's Hockey League A - C.

Participants in the 2016/17 season

• ZSC Lions
• Ladies Team Lugano
• SC Reinach
• SC Weinfelden
• EV Bomo Thun
• Neuchâtel Hockey Academy

Swiss master

League table

1987: EHC Kloten Specials 1988: EHC Kloten Specials 1989: Grasshopper Club Zurich 1990 : Grasshopper Club Zurich 1991 : Grasshopper Club Zurich 1992 : EHC Bülach 1993 : SC Lyss 1994 : DHC Langenthal 1995 : SC Lyss 1996 : SC Lyss 1997 : DHC Lyss

1998 : EV Zug 1999 : EV Zug 2000 : DSC St. Gallen 2001 : SC Reinach 2002 : SC Reinach 2003: SC Reinach 2004: EV Zug 2005: EV Zug 2006: Ladies Team Lugano 2007: Ladies Team Lugano

2008: DHC Langenthal 2009: Ladies Team Lugano 2010: Ladies Team Lugano 2011: ZSC Lions Women 2012: ZSC Lions Women 2013: ZSC Lions women 2014: Ladies Team Lugano 2015: Ladies Team Lugano 2016 : ZSC Lions women 2017 : ZSC Lions women 2018 : ZSC Lions Women

statistics

team	Championship title	Years
ZSC Lions / Grasshopper Club	9	1989, 1990, 1991, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018
HC Lugano	6th	2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015
EV train	4th	1998, 1999, 2004, 2005
DHC Lyss / SC Lyss	4th	1993, 1995, 1996, 1997
SC Reinach	3	2001, 2002, 2003
DHC Langenthal	2	1994, 2008
EHC Kloten	2	1987, 1988
DSC St. Gallen	1	2000
EHC Bülach	1	1992

Web links

• Women's ice hockey SWHL A teams at sihf.ch
• Women's ice hockey SWHL A results at sihf.ch
• Women's ice hockey in Switzerland at damen-eishockey.de
• History of Swiss women's ice hockey ( Memento from November 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Foreign women in Switzerland since 1989 ( Memento from November 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ sport.winterthur.ch, page no longer available , search in web archives: Barbara Müller: "Continuous upswing in Swiss women's ice hockey"
3. ↑ SWHL A: Lugano and ZSC Lions in the role of favorites. (No longer available online.) In: infoticker.ch. September 15, 2014, archived from the original on February 10, 2018 ; accessed on March 27, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ ZSC Lions again champions in women . In: az Aargauer Zeitung . ( aargauerzeitung.ch [accessed on June 30, 2018]).
5. Jump up ↑ Achievements - Lions Women. In: lions-frauen.ch. Retrieved August 4, 2016 .