Release from 21.07.2021

Basic ICE schedule until the Olympic break

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The general schedule of the regular season of the bet-at-home ICE Hockey League until the IIHF I Olympic break in February 2022 is fixed. The 14 teams of the multinational league will start the upcoming season on September 17, 2021 with a new mode - pre-playoffs instead of intermediate rounds. Tentatively scheduled are the first 44 rounds of the Regular Season through February 1, 2022.

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The Regular Season is scheduled as a double round robin of 52 games per team starting September 17, 2021. The provisional schedule covers the first 44 of a total of 52 rounds until the first possible start of the IIHF - Olympic February Break at the beginning of February 2021. The schedule for the game days after the IIHF-February Break, depends on the outcome of the Olympic Qualification Tournament in August 2021 and the circumstance whether the IIHF-February Break will be realized in normal mode (1 week) or in Olympic mode (3 weeks).

The 14 teams of the bet-at-home ICE Hockey League still have until August 15, 2021 to postpone individual game days by mutual agreement with the opposing team. The match start times will also be determined by mid-August following final agreement with the TV partners.

"Road trips" and regional Christmas round
For logistical and infrastructural reasons, "road trips" are also set for the upcoming 2021/22 season. During the Christmas period, as in the past three seasons, there will again be as many regional match-ups as possible due to the denser match interval. Due to the large number of arena unavailabilities and the dates in the Champions Hockey League as well as the IIHF Div. 1 A World Championship, it will be impossible to play the ICE season in completely closed home and away rounds in the upcoming season.

New mode | Pre-Playoffs instead of intermediate round
After the double first and second round - in total 364 games - the regular season 2021/22 is finished. While the top six teams have already qualified for the quarter-finals, the season ends for the teams ranked 11th to 14th. The teams ranked seventh to tenth will contest the pre-playoffs in "best-of-3" mode, whereby the seventh-placed team can choose whether to play the ninth or tenth-placed team. The winners of the two series complete the field for the quarterfinals.

Quarterfinal matchups will continue to be determined by a playoff pick. In this process, the top-3 teams select their opponent after the regular season. The fourth-place team is not available for selection and will face the team not selected in the pick.

From quarterfinals "best-of-7
The objective is to play the quarter-finals, the semi-finals and the final in a "best-of-7" mode. The first team to win four matches will advance to the next round. The champion of bet-at-home ICE Hockey will thus be determined after a maximum of 419 games. The final determination of the available match days, the resulting playoff series that can be played, as well as the match rhythm (H-A-H-A-H-A-H or H-H-A-A-H-A-H) can also only be made after the Olympic qualification has been completed.

Christian Feichtinger, Managing Director of bet-at-home ICE Hockey League: "The preparation of the game schedule for the 2021/22 season has presented us with very big challenges. The late start of the league, triggered by the late scheduling of the IIHF Olympic Qualification Tournament, the last possible final game day on April 20, 2022, dictated by participation in the IIHF- DIV.1A World Championship, and the number of game days available for league play, which will not be determined until the end of August, requires maximum flexibility from the league teams when scheduling home game days. Through the Covid-19 pandemic, league teams and league organization have learned to deal with last-minute schedule changes and shifts."

>> Go to the schedule.