Kristianstads IK, or simply Kristianstad () is a Swedish

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

club based in

Kristianstad Kristianstad (, ; older spelling from Danish ''Christianstad'') is a city and the seat of Kristianstad Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 40,145 inhabitants in 2016. During the last 15 years, it has gone from a garrison town to a developed ...

. It plays in Hockeyallsvenskan, the second tier, having been promoted to that level for the first time in history in 2019. The team is nicknamed the "Wild Kings". In 2018–19 it had an average attendance of 1017, the fifth highest of the 47 teams in Hockeyettan, and the second highest for a sports team based in Kristianstad, after IFK Kristianstad.

History

The first hockey team in

was the hockey section of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

club Åsums BK. The team originally played

rink bandy Rink bandy is a variant of the larger sport of bandy. Unlike bandy which is played on a large bandy field, rink bandy is played on significantly smaller ice hockey sized ice rinks. While a bandy field is about the same size as a football pit ...

from 1954 and started playing hockey in 1959. Its first game was against

Tyringe SoSS Tyringe is a locality situated in Hässleholm Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 4,658 inhabitants in 2010. History Administratively the place was made a municipal community (''municipalsamhälle'') within the rural municipalities of Fi ...

that year. It played its home matches in an outdoor venue in Norra Åsum. In 1962, it defeated the Danish national team by 7–3 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

as part of the opponent's preparations for that year's World Championship. The team was dissolved in 1966 due to lack of funds from the main club and decreasing commitment from key people. Kristianstads IK was founded on July 22 of the same year. It played at an outdoor venue until 1969, when it moved into the newly-completed

Kristianstads ishall Kristianstads IK, or simply Kristianstad () is a Swedish ice hockey club based in Kristianstad. It plays in Hockeyallsvenskan, the second tier, having been promoted to that level for the first time in history in 2019. The team is nicknamed the "W ...

. Current

Columbus Blue Jackets The Columbus Blue Jackets (often simply referred to as the Jackets) are a professional ice hockey team based in Columbus, Ohio. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conferenc ...

head coach John Tortorella played for Kristianstad in the 1981–82 season. In 1996–97 Kristianstad played in the qualification (Kvalserien) to the second tier for the first time. It failed to achieve promotion after losing the decisive game away against Rögle BK. In 2000, due to financial troubles, it became the first sports club in Sweden to undergo

debt restructuring Debt restructuring is a process that allows a private or public company or a sovereign entity facing cash flow problems and financial distress to reduce and renegotiate its delinquent debts to improve or restore liquidity so that it can contin ...

. The club was relegated to the fourth level in 2003 but promoted back to the third level two years later. In 2006–07, Kristianstad reached the decisive playoffs for qualification to Kvalserien for HockeyAllsvenskan, but was defeated by Väsby IK. In March 2013, it underwent a second debt restructuring. In 2013–14 and 2015–16 the team reached the final playoff round for Kvalserien, but lost against

Piteå HC Piteå Hockey Club, usually abbreviated Piteå HC, is a Swedish ice hockey club based in Piteå in Norrbotten, Sweden's northernmost county. The club played six seasons, from 1999 to 2005, in Sweden's second-tier league, Allsvenskan Allsve ...

and Södertälje SK, respectively. In 2016–17 it qualified for Kvalserien, but finished third and was not promoted to HockeyAllsvenskan. In the following season it was beaten by VIK Västerås HK in the final playoff round. In early 2019, the Swedish Tax Agency requested that the club be declared bankrupt due to unpaid debts. It paid the debts before the date of the bankruptcy hearing, and the request was withdrawn. In the same season the team reached Kvalserien again and was promoted to HockeyAllsvenskan for the first time after winning away against Almtuna IS in

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

in the decisive last-round game. In the following season, Kristianstad finished 13th out of 14 teams in HockeyAllsvenskan, and were to play in Kvalserien to try to avoid relegation. However, Kvalserien was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

and there was no results-based promotion or relegation. In

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, Kristianstad finished last in the league and had to play a play-out series against 13th-placed Väsby; it won the series by 3 games to 2 and avoided relegation.

Colours and logo

Kristianstad plays in green home jerseys. Since 2016 it has used orange as a secondary colour as part of the promotion ''Den Orangea Staden'' ("the orange city"), a cooperation with IFK Kristianstad (men's handball), Kristianstad HK (women's handball), Kristianstad FC (men's

), Kristianstads DFF (women's association football) and Kristianstad Predators (

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

). Kristianstad has two logos, the club logo and a secondary logo. It has used the club logo on the jerseys since 2013, having previously used the secondary logo for that purpose.

Honoured players

Three players have their jerseys hanging in the rafters in Kristianstads ishall: forwards Roger Persson (1992–2001) and Jonas Svensson (1987–1989, 1992–1993, 1994–2003) and defenceman Per Schlyter (1988–1998, 1999–2002, 2003–2004).

Season-by-season

References

External links

Official websiteTeam profile on Eliteprospects.com
{{HockeyAllsvenskan Ice hockey teams in Sweden Sport in Kristianstad Municipality Ice hockey clubs established in 1966 1966 establishments in Sweden Ice hockey teams in Skåne County HockeyAllsvenskan teams