Lovisa Berndtsson makes decision about playing career
The IX: Hockey Friday with The Ice Garden, May 30, 2025
Another week, another Hockey Friday. Angelica Rodriguez of The Ice Garden here, ready to catch you up on whatever you may have missed in your travels. This week, we’ve caught up with former Buffalo Beauts goaltender Lovisa Berndtsson, who announced via Hockeysverige.se that she has decided to step back from hockey, barring an offer she can’t refuse from a team willing to work with her.
Continue reading with a subscription to The IX
Get unlimited access to our exclusive coverage of a varitety of women’s sports, including our premium newsletter by subscribing today!
Already a member?
Login
Berndtsson didn’t have the best luck on a Beauts team that struggled with consistency on both sides of the puck but, prior to and since the folding of the Premier Hockey Federation, she has made a name for herself in the SDHL as one of its most successful and experienced netminders, amassing a career save percentage over .900 and winning a championship in 2016-17 with Djurgårdens IF. Now 36, facing shifting tides in the league and on her current team (SDE HF), she’s had to make some difficult decisions regarding her future in hockey.
Want women’s hockey content? Subscribe to The Ice Garden!
Here at The IX, we’re collaborating with The Ice Garden to bring you Hockey Friday. And if you want the women’s hockey goodness 24/7? Well, you should subscribe to The Ice Garden now!
Berndtsson had a tremendous run stretching nearly 20 professional seasons. Now, looking back, she has a lot to be proud of. But you can read it in her own words below. [Note: minor edits have been made for clarity/flow.]
First of all, congrats on a great career. Take us through what led to the decision to step back from hockey.
This was honestly not the decision I thought I would come to already this year. I was set on playing for another season and then probably [retiring]. I was hoping to play another year for SDE together with my best friend and goalie partner Kassidy [Sauve], but they are changing their practice times to midday for the upcoming season. I have a very good job at CCM Hockey where I also feel like I could have a good future and therefore I can’t move from Stockholm, and also don’t really want to. All other teams around here at the level I want to play at have signed their goalies and therefore I had to come to the decision to step back as a player.
What are some of the emotions you might have, or might not have, expected when making a decision like this?
I think my feelings are pretty much how I expected to feel but it’s definitely very emotional and hard. Some days I feel completely fine and other days I will feel very sad and a little lost to be honest. It’s very hard to picture myself not playing hockey anymore and I have a hard time identifying as Lollo who’s not a hockey player. But I am working with my mental coach to learn how to let me feel everything I feel but also to move forward in all of this.
Reflecting back on your career, overall, what would you say is your proudest moment? Your favorite moment?
I have a lot of moments that I feel very proud of, all on different levels, but my proudest moment is when we won the championship in Sweden with DIF back in 2017 and I got picked as the best goaltender in the league and MVP in the playoffs. That season also ended with me representing Sweden at the World Championship.
What will you miss most about being a hockey player? What do you think you might miss least?
There are a lot of things I will miss for sure, and one of them is just as easy as the game. I love playing hockey and being a goaltender, there is just so much I love about it. But one thing I will definitely miss is the social part. Hanging out, practicing and playing games with the girls is something special with being on a team and that I will miss a lot.
The only thing I won’t miss is having pain in different body parts — lately it’s been my hip that has been bothering me and this is also something I’ve had for several years of my career.
Any plans to be involved in the sport beyond a playing capacity at some point in the future? If not, what’s next?
I am coaching for a girls’ spring and summer program in the U.S. called Wade Warriors, which I am doing together with my best friend and former teammate Dom Kremer [who played for the Beauts as well as the PWHL’s Minnesota Frost, then unnamed]. This is something I will keep doing as much as I can in the U.S., but they also do a Europe camp every year that I am helping out coaching.
Other than that, I will mostly focus on my civil career at CCM right now. I have already received some questions about stepping into a leadership role for teams here in Stockholm, but I will need a little distance before I can sign up for something like that.
Your professional hockey career has stretched over an impressive length of time. To what do you owe that kind of longevity, and do you have any advice for goalies in that regard?
Yeah, it’s been 30 years that has felt long, but also went by very quick. I think just my motivation and pure love for the game has made me play for this long, even though it’s not been easy all the time. Being the single girl on a boys team, playing multiple teams, having a full time job at the same time as a hockey career, hip surgery, knee surgery. But it has all been so worth it and hockey has given me so much in my life that I am so, so grateful for.
It might sound simple but I think you need to keep the love [for] the game and always enjoy it. There will be results, coaches and other factors that put a lot of pressure on you and then it’s even more important to remember it is just a game that we are [playing] because we love it.
Save 30% when you pre-order “Becoming Caitlin Clark”
Howard Megdal’s newest book will be released this June! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including nterviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
Click the link below to preorder and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout.
Women’s hockey links
Some PWHL fans might have been slightly confused watching the Ottawa Charge remain on the ice a little longer than is customary for the losing team in the championship; however, Jocks in Jills provided some clarity on the situation (as did Gwyneth Philips, who shared the post to her IG story with the caption “I would commit arson for this team”).
As we get into draft mode for the PW, TIG will have some predictions, some analysis, and some overall fun stuff to get you ready for your favorite team’s picks, starting with Lydia Murray’s expansion draft predictions for the Boston Fleet.
The IIHF Hall of Fame inducted seven new members over last weekend, and unlike certain other institutions, two women (Vicky Sunohara and Kim Martin-Hasson) were amongst the inductees. Congrats to the two legends of Canadian and Swedish hockey!
More honors, this time for a current legend, as Hilary Knight received USA Hockey’s Women’s Player of the Year Award for a third time, for her performances both in the PWHL and at this year’s Worlds.
The battle for gender inclusion in hockey continues, and Tera Hofmann provided an insightful look for TIG at the effects recent restrictions in the UK have had for trans and gender variant players.
| Mondays: Soccer |
| By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer |
| Tuesdays: Tennis |
| By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer |
| Wednesdays: Basketball |
| By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The Next |
| Thursdays: Golf |
| By: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX |
| Fridays: Hockey |
| By: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden |
| Saturdays: Gymnastics |
| By: Lela Moore, @runlelarun, Freelance Writer |
