Release from 05.07.2022

Alps Hockey League season 22/23 starts on September 10

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The Alps Hockey League opens the new season on September 10. Fifteen teams will take part in the then starting seventh season of the cross-national league. The Hockey Unterland Cavaliers will take part in the championship for the first time. The game mode from the previous season was kept, the length of the playoff series was increased.

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 15 teams from Italy (7), Austria (7) and Slovenia (1) will contest the 22/23 season in the Alps Hockey League starting on September 10. For the Italian federation, the Hockey Unterland Cavaliers will participate in the international championship for the first time. The South Tyrolean team won the IHL last season.

Game mode for 22/23 confirmed

The game mode for the 22/23 season in the Alps Hockey League has remained unchanged. Ident of the past season, first a regular season round with 28 games per team will be played. Afterwards the top-5 form the Master Round, receive bonus points based on their Regular Season ranking (4-3-2-1-0) and play each other twice more for the best possible starting position for the quarterfinal pick - the top-5 are already qualified for the playoffs after the Regular Season.

The other ten teams (6 - 15 from the Regular Season) will be divided into two Qualification Rounds and will also receive bonus points based on their Regular Season ranking. After a round robin, the top three teams from both groups qualify for the Pre-Playoffs, where the vacant three playoff spots are then played out in a "best-of-3" mode (1st Qualification Round A - 3rd Qualification Round B; 2nd QRA - 2nd QRB; 3rd QRA - 1st QRB).

Playoff opener on March 7 | All series "best-of-7

The first playoff game day is dated for March 7, 2023. The champion of the seventh Alps Hockey League season will then be determined on April 22, 2023 at the latest. A new feature is the length of the playoff series, which will feature a "best-of-7" format at all three levels.

Two organizations dock with ICE

Reigning AHL champion Migross Supermercati Asiago Hockey and the VEU Feldkirch organization oriented towards the win2day ICE Hockey League and, like the Vienna Capitals Silver, will no longer participate in the Alps Hockey League in the upcoming season.

The most important dates of the 2022/23 season at a glance:*.

Sat, 10.09.2022: Start of the basic round
Sat, 21.01.2023: last round of basic competition
Thu, 26.01.2023: Start intermediate round
Sat, 25.02.2023: last matchday intermediate round
Tue, 28.02.2023: Start Pre-Playoffs ("best-of-3")
Sat, 04.03.2023: last match Pre-Playoffs - Playoff-Pick afterwards
Tue, 07.03.2023: Start quarterfinals ("best-of-7")
Thu, 03/23/2023: Start Semifinals ("best-of-7")
Sat, 08.04.2023: Start final ("best-of-7")
Sat, 22.04.2023: last possible final game

Matjaz Rakovez, AHL Officer of the Slovenian Ice Hockey Federation: "Last seasons was really unpredictable because of Covid.It was difficult to manage,run and compete because of different Covid regulations.But with great cooperation we successfully went through these problems and kept this league attractive and prepared for the bright future."

Marcello Cobelli, AHL Officer of the Italian Ice Hockey Federation: "The Alps Hockey League has become an established and well-organized league in Italy, Austria and Slovenia. The game mode again promises a lot of excitement, as all teams still have a chance to reach the playoffs after the Regular Season. The level of the league is increasing from year to year. We have the perfect mix of young, hungry players and established professionals. This also resonates with the fans and media."

Dr. Nicolas Stockhammer, AHL Officer of the Austrian Ice Hockey Federation: "The Alps Hockey League (AHL) has in the past years become a European best-practice league that reflects a high international standard given its trilateral-federations background and the professional level of organization and related game attractiveness. Against this backdrop, the AHL has remained a successful product of Italian, Slovenian and Austrian professional ice hockey despite severe challenges like the ongoing pandemic with a multitude of cases of players' infections, game postponements and cancellations. Still, the last season was an impressive evidence that a well organized ice hockey league with a trans-border outreach is possible and highly attractive.The forthcoming season will come along with some changes concerning the team landscape- VEU Feldkirch and Asiago have left the league, just as EV Vienna Capitals „Silver“. Hockey Unterland Cavaliers have joined the league for the season 2022/23. All in all, we shall expect, as in the last years, a high quality league, exciting games and great hockey.“