NA3HL announces 2018 Fraser Cup Playoff Schedule and Championship

March 14, 2018

The North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) has announced its schedule and format for the 2018 NA3HL Fraser Cup Playoffs and Championship. The Fraser Cup (formerly the Silver Cup) crowns the National playoff champion from the NA3HL.

 

 

Back on September 11, 2017, the NA3HL renamed its Championship trophy the Fraser Cup in the memory of the late Robert ‘Fraser’ Ritchie, a long-time staff member of the NAHL, NA3HL and NAPHL. On June 10, 2017, Ritchie passed away after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Although Ritchie ultimately lost his battle with the disease, his influence and daily interactions with all of the owners, coaches, staff, volunteers and administrators in the NAHL, NA3HL and NAPHL, will never be forgotten, and are now and forever memorialized with the annual awarding of the Fraser Cup.

 

The event will be held in cooperation with the first of five 2018 NAHL Future Prospects Combine events. Entering its fifth year in 2018, the NAHL Combines introduce and provide players with a weekend that involves the 'NAHL Experience,' which will consist of competitive hockey, education of the future levels of hockey, academic preparation for NCAA hockey and exposure to professional, college and junior scouts.

 

Division Semi-Finals: The Club seeded first in each division will compete in a best-of-three series with the fourth seeded Club in the same division. The Club seeded second in each division will compete in a best-of-three-series against the Club seeded third in the same division. The #1 and #2 seeds will have home ice advantage in the first round. The higher seed shall have the right to host games one and three. The lower seed shall have the right to host game two. Teams may agree to an alternate arrangement upon mutual agreement. The first club to win two games in a division semifinal series will be declared the winner of the series and advance to the next round of playoff competition.

 

Central Division: #1 North Iowa Bulls vs. #4 Wausau RiverWolves | #2 La Crosse Freeze vs. #3 Wisconsin Whalers

Coastal Division: #1 New England Stars vs. #4 Maine Wild | #2 L/A Nordiques vs. #3 Northeast Generals

East Division: #1 Metro Jets vs. #4 Southern Tier Xpress | #2 Pittsburgh Vengeance vs. #3 Lansing Wolves

Frontier Division: #1 Yellowstone Quake vs. #4 Gillette Wild | #2 Great Falls Americans vs. #3 Helena Bighorns

Midwest Division: #1 St. Louis Jr. Blues (bye) | #2 Peoria Mustangs vs. #3 Evansville Jr. Thunderbolts

Northeast Division: #1 Binghamton Junior Senators vs. #4 Oswego Stampede | #2 Niagara Falls PowerHawks vs. #3 Skylands Kings

South Division: #1 Texas Brahmas vs. #4 Point Mallard Ducks | #2 Atlanta Capitals vs. #3 Mid-Cities Jr. Stars

West Division: #1 Granite City Lumberjacks vs. #4 Willmar WarHawks | #2 New Ulm Steel vs. #3 Alexandria Blizzard

 

Division Finals: The two Clubs in each division that won a division semifinal series shall compete in a best-of-three series against each other in the division finals. The higher seed shall have the right to host games one and three. The lower seed shall have the right to host game two. Teams may agree to an alternate arrangement upon mutual agreement. The first Club to win two games in a division final series will be declared the winner of the series and advance to the Fraser Cup Championship Tournament.

 

The eight divisional playoff champions will advance to the NA3HL Fraser Cup Championship Tournament, where they will play a three- game round-robin format followed by a semi-final and a championship game at Canlan Ice Sports in Romeoville, Illinois, from March 27-31. The eight divisional playoff winners will be seeded 1-8 based on their regular season point totals. A round-robin format with two pools will be implemented, with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the Semi-Finals, where they will then cross over to play the other top two teams from the other pool. The winners of the Semi-Finals will advance to the Silver Cup Championship Game. In the event of a tie after round-robin play, a tiebreaking procedure adopted in the rules and regulations shall be used to break the tie.

 

Pool A: #1, #4, #5, #8

Pool B: #2, #3, #6, #7

 

Tuesday, March 27: 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5

Wednesday, March 28: 1 vs. 5, 2 vs. 6, 3 vs. 7, 4 vs. 8

Thursday, March 29: 1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3, 5 vs. 8, 6 vs. 7

Friday, March 30: Pool A 1st place vs. Pool B 2nd place, Pool B 1st place vs. Pool A 2nd place

Saturday, March 31: Championship Game