Monday, May 23, 2011

ICE Day Off & Tiebreaker Rules

The ICE will play their final round robin game of the Memorial Cup tomorrow against the QMJHL Champion Saint John Sea Dogs.
For the rest of the tournament the ICE are in a must win situation.
Only the 2009 Windsor Spitfires started 0-2 and won the Memorial Cup.

Tonight Saint John plays Owen Sound.
If the Sea Dogs win they clinch 1st place and tomorrow's game against the ICE will have no meaning to them in the standings.

If the Attack win it sets up a possibilty of a 3-way tie for 2nd place, because if the ICE win and then if Owen Sound beats Mississauga on Wednesday the Attack would be 3-0 and the three other teams would be 1-2.

There is a tiebreaker rule in which one team would get a bye to the Semi-Final and the two other teams would play in the tiebreaker game.

Playoff Formula
The game each team played against the 1st place team is removed from their records. Then you add each team's goals for with their goals against which sum you divide into such team's goals for. The team with the highest percentage gains the higher position in the standings and an automatic berth as the home team in the semi-final game. The remaining two teams will play in the tiebreaker game.

The ICE 5-0 loss to Owen Sound would not count and the fact they lost a 1-goal game to the Majors also helps them in the tiebreaker rules.
Saint John also had a 1 goal game against Mississauga but it was a higher scoring game which benifits both of those teams.
The ICE would need a win with at least a 2-goal margin to have a bye into the semi-final.

Of course all of this doesn't matter if the ICE don't win tomorrow.

Most IF situations have the ICE needing to win 4 straight games to win the tournament.

Optional practice at the practice facility.
Jerry Bancks overseeing the next drill.
Justin Cardinal in Nathan Lieuwen's gear.