NA3HL announces 2016 playoff format, Silver Cup Championship

February 8, 2016

The North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) has announced its schedule and format for the 2016 NA3HL Playoffs and Silver Cup Championship.

 

 

Division Semi-Finals: The clubs are seeded within their own division based upon their finish in the NA3HL regular-season standings. The top four clubs from each division qualify for the playoffs. The Club seeded first in each division will compete in a best-of-three series with the fourth seeded Club in the same division. The Club seeded second in each division will compete in a best-of-three-series against the Club seeded third in the same division. The #1 and #2 seeds will have home ice advantage in the first round. The higher seed shall have the right to host games one and three. The lower seed shall have the right to host game two. Teams may agree to an alternate arrangement upon mutual agreement. The Divisional Semi-Finals may begin no earlier than Thursday, March 17, 2016 and must conclude no later than Sunday, March 20, 2016. The first club to win two games in a division semifinal series will be declared the winner of the series and advance to the next round of playoff competition.

 

Division Finals: The two Clubs in each division that won a division semifinal series shall compete in a best-of-three series against each other in the division finals. The higher seed shall have the right to host games one and three. The lower seed shall have the right to host game two. Teams may agree to an alternate arrangement upon mutual agreement. The Division Finals may begin no earlier than Thursday, March 24, 2016 and conclude no later than Sunday, March 27, 2016. The first Club to win two games in a division final series will be declared the winner of the series and advance to the Silver Cup Championship Tournament.

 

Silver Cup Wildcard: At the conclusion of the Division Finals, the six teams that lost Division Final series shall be ranked from 1-6 based on their regular season point totals. The regular season tiebreaking procedures will be used if necessary. The two top ranked teams shall be declared the Silver Cup Wild Card teams and shall advance onto the Silver Cup Championship Tournament as the seventh and eighth seeds, respectively.

The six divisional playoff champions along with the two wildcard teams (8 total) will compete in the eight-team NA3HL Championship Tournament, a three-game round robin format followed by Semi-Finals and a Championship game at Canlan Ice Sports in Romeoville, Illinois, from March 30-April 3. The six divisional playoff winners will be seeded 1-6 based on their regular season point totals. The 1st wildcard and 2nd wildcard will be seeded 7th and 8th based on regular season point totals. A round-robin format with two pools will be implemented, with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the Semi-Finals, where they will then cross over to play the other top two teams from the other pool. The winners of the Semi-Finals will advance to the Silver Cup Championship Game. In the event of a tie after round-robin play, a tiebreaking procedure adopted in the rules and regulations shall be used to break the tie.

 

Pool A: #1, #4, #5, 2nd wildcard

Pool B: #2, #3, #6, 1st wildcard

 

Wednesday, March 30: #1 vs. 2nd wildcard, #2 vs. 1st wildcard, #3 vs. #6, #4 vs. #5

Thursday, March 31: #1 vs. #5, #2 vs. #6, #3 vs. 1st wildcard, #4 vs. 2nd wildcard

Friday, April 1: #1 vs. #4, #2 vs. #3, #5 vs. 2nd wildcard, #6 vs. 1st wildcard

Saturday, April 2: Pool A 1st place vs. Pool B 2nd place, Pool B 1st place vs. Pool A 2nd place

Sunday, April 3: Championship Game