USPHL Elite Division Playoff Format
2021-22 Season
Each team’s 28-man playoff roster must be declared by February 10, 2022
All Conferences:
Top 4 teams in the standings make the playoffs:
Higher seed maintains home ice advantage.
One Round: Best-of-3 Series
Week ending March 13, 2022
- No. 1 hosts No. 4
- No. 2 hosts No. 3
- Winners advance to the Finals (Hudson, NH). March 24-28, 2022.
North and Mid-Atlantic Conferences: All games played at host’s arena.
Florida Conference: All games played at AdventHealth Center Ice (Wesley Chapel, Fla.)
South East Conference all games played at Xtreme Ice (Charlotte, N.C.)
ALL GAMES WILL BE PLAYED 5-on-5 UNTIL A WINNER IS DETERMINED (20-minute Sudden Death Overtime format).
BREAKING TIES in STANDINGS: The following shall be the order considered:
i. Most Points
ii. Most points achieved Head to Head
iii. Most wins
iv. Goals for minus goals against
v. Lowest penalty minutes
vi. Coin Toss
In cases where teams play a different number of League games, winning percentage shall replace Most Points in the hierarchy and iv. and v. shall be averaged.
Elite Nationals (March 24-28, 2022)
Round Robin (March 24-26, Cyclones Arena, Hudson, NH)
8 Team format with 2 round robin pools.
Elite A: Southeast #2, Florida #1, Mid-Atlantic #2, North #1
Elite B: Southeast #1, Florida #2, Mid-Atlantic #1, North #2
Round Robin games cannot end in a tie. There will be a SINGLE 5-Minute 3-on-3 sudden death OT in Round Robin games where teams change ends. At the end of the OT, if the score remains tied, the teams will go into a 3-man shootout like regular season. If the score remains tied, the teams will convert to a sudden death shootout like regular season until a winner is determined.
Round Robin game points will be awarded as follows: 3 points for a regulation win, 2 points for an overtime win or shootout win, and 1 point for overtime loss.
Standings and Tiebreakers
In round robin and subsequent play, when standings are required to determine placement, the following shall be used in order to determine the ranking:
1. Most Points
2. Most points achieved Head-to-Head, assuming all tied teams played each other.
3. Most regulation wins
4. GF/(GF+GA) with the higher percentage winning the tie breaker.
5. Lowest penalty minutes
6. Coin Toss
Semifinals March 27, 2022 (Cyclones Arena)
Top 2 teams from each pool advance to semi-finals.
A1 hosts B2
B1 hosts A1
Championship March 28, 2022 (Merrimack College)
Winners of the semifinals advance to the Championship
If tied after regulation play, Semifinal and Championship games will have consecutive 20-minute sudden-death overtime periods, with teams changing ends each period, until a winner is declared.
