Brynäs Women

Seven times Brynäs reached the SDHL final and seven times walked away without the gold medal, most recently losing to Luleå in 2022 and again in 2023. Then, in the 2025–26 season, they beat Frölunda HC to win the club's first Swedish Championship, closing out thirty-nine years in Sweden's top flight without a national title.

The women's section traces back to 1981, built inside a club that already carried the nickname "Folkets lag" — the people's team — a name earned in the early 1960s when Brynäs became a club followed well beyond Gävle. The women's team inherited it along with the black, red and gold.

Individual seasons filled some of the gap between finals and gold. Lara Stalder set a single-season scoring record on her way to the Guldhjälmen as SDHL MVP in 2019–20, and Kateřina Mrázová took the same award the year after. Erika Grahm captained the side through that stretch before moving into the sporting director's office, a step that kept her inside the building rather than sending her elsewhere.

Two regular-season titles, in 2011–12 and 2021–22, showed the team could top the table over a full season even when the play-offs kept turning the other way. The 2026 final finally matched the two.

None of it carries the weight of Leksands IF. The GävleDala derby is the fixture Brynäs supporters mark on the calendar before any other, a rivalry drawn along the old provincial line between Gästrikland and Dalarna rather than anything decided in a single season's standings.