Maritime Junior Hockey League Logo. Photo (MHL)
The Maritime Hockey League is about to go into its play-offs with a never before seen format to determine seeding.
The league has announced it will adopt a round robin style tournament where each team will place their divisional opponents once to determine first round play-off match-ups.
President Steve Dykeman says teams have rarely been on a level playing field this year and the format will reset the field.
“The 2020-21 regular season has not been a “regular” season. Our players and team staff have persevered through an unprecedented period,” said Dykeman. “With the changes in restrictions throughout the region over the past five months, teams have rarely been on an even playing field. The round robin will allow us to reset the field, while maintaining an advantage for teams that fared better during the regular season.”
Teams with higher win percentages will get home ice advantage and the top two teams in each division will be awarded points to start the round-robin.
The round robin will use the Fred Page Cup point system with regulation wins worth three points, overtime wins worth two points, and an overtime loss worth one point.
There will be no shootouts with the round robin. Overtime following the standard playoff format of 5-on-5 play with a ten minute overtime at the end of regulation followed by 20 minute periods as needed.
All twelve teams qualifying for the playoffs and the first round of the playoffs will serve to reduce the number of teams to four in each division.
The pre-playoff tournament begins on April 14 in the Eastlink South Division and April 18 for the Eastlink North Division.
