San Jose Pirates - Season Structure

Season Structure

See also: List of American Inline Hockey League seasons and Season structure of the AIHL

The American Inline Hockey League season is divided into an exhibition season (November), a regular season (from the first week in December through early to mid April) and a postseason (the playoffs). During the exhibition season, teams may play other teams from the AIHL. They also may compete against clubs from other leagues. During the regular season, clubs play each other in a predefined schedule. The AIHL playoffs, which go from April to the end of May, is an elimination tournament where two teams play against each other to win a best-of-three series in order to advance to the next round. The final remaining team is crowned champion.

In the regular season, with the current 23-club AIHL geographically split up into two conferences, and each conference having two divisions, each team plays 24 games; either at home, on the road, or a neutral festival/jamboree site. Each division is responsible for declaring their schedule structure.

The AIHL's regular season standings are based on a point system instead of winning percentages. Points are awarded for each game, where two points are awarded for a win, one point for losing in overtime or a shootout, and zero points for a loss in regulation.

The regular season division champion along with the next two (in a four-team division), or three (in a five or more-team division), in each division with the next highest number of points qualify for the playoffs. The AIHL playoffs is an elimination tournament, where the teams are group in pairs to play best-of-three series, the winners moving on to the next round. The first round of the playoffs, or division semi-finals, consists of the regular season division winner playing the fourth seed (or a bye in the case of a four-team division), and the second playing the third. In the second round, or division finals, the two remaining teams in each division play each other, with the division champions proceeding to the American Inline Hockey League Finals. In the third round, or conference finals, the two division winners in each conference play each other, with the conference champions proceeding to the championship finals.

In the first two rounds the higher-ranked team is awarded home-court advantage. All games are played at this team's home venue. In the final two rounds, or AIHL Finals, all games at a neutral site. The higher-ranked team is awarded home-court advantage, where the team is designated as home-team two of the three games played—the first and "when necessary", the third games—with the other game played with the lower-ranked team designated as home-team. Home-court advantage is awarded regardless of where each team ranks in their own division.