Playoff Format & Tiebreaker Rules 2019-2020

Playoff Format

In each division, teams play each other two times. Standings at the end of the round robin will be used for the Finals night.  Any ties in standings (points) after the Round Robin will be broken using the tiebreaker rules below.

Tiebreaker Rules

These rules are to be used to break ties in the standings based on points – 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie.

They will be used, if necessary, after the regular season to determine finishing positions from 1^st to 6^th.

They will be used, if necessary, to break ties within each division after the 10-game round robin.

Rules are applied in order until ties are broken.  If 3 teams are tied, once the top team is determined using the rules, the tie between the 2 remaining teams is broken by continuing to apply the rules from the point the 3-way tie was broken.

Here are the rules, in order:

1.      Most accumulated short players throughout the year. I.E. less than 14 players, if team is short 1 player team is a -1 for that game, short 2 players team is a -2 for that game and so on.

2.      Points in head-to-head competition among tied teams during the round robin.

3.      Most wins among tied teams in all 10 round robin games.

4.      Difference between goals for and goals against among tied teams.  This difference is determined game by game, with a maximum difference of 7 in any one game.  All ten (10) games are included when applying this rule at the end of round robin play. 

5.      Least number of goals allowed among tied teams throughout the round robin.

6.      Least penalized team in all 10 games of round robin play.

7.      Flip of a coin.

In final, if a game is tied after regulation, a 5-minute sudden death 4 on 4 period will be played (stopped time).  If no team scores, a 5-player shootout will decide the game.  The 5 players need to be named on the game sheet before the start of the 5-minute sudden death period.  If still tied after the 5-player shootout, additional 1-player shootouts will play out until a winner is decided.  A player cannot shoot again until everyone on the team has shot.  If there is a penalty being served at the end of regulations, then that team will play a player short until the penalty is served.  Any player serving a penalty at the end of the sudden death will NOT be eligible to shoot in the shootout.