AHA releases 2021–22 post-season schedule, Spiders not quite ready to head to golf course

March 10, 2022

The AHA has announced the unofficial — preliminary — playoffs schedule. And based on last night’s victory over the Fighting Walleye to reclaim fourth place, the Spiders are still squarely in the post-season picture.

While the format returns to the standard round-robin play, which hasn’t been in place since 2018–19, the AHA has ensured even more blowouts by inviting five teams instead of the usual top 4 to advance. Especially considering it will be almost one month after the regular season conclusion before pool play starts in mid-April, plenty of time for the tuuk rust to oxidize. Also new for the league, the post-season will also be spread across two weeks, rather than trying to cram four games into 45 hours.

C3 playoff format:

• Top five teams from each division advance to playoffs.
• One pool of 10 teams, round robin, cross-divisional play (three games each).
• Top four pool-play records advance to semifinals.
• Semifinal winners advance to Tier Championship Sunday evening.

Seeds for C3 Tier:

Current C3 standings

Regular season tiebreakers:

In the event of a tie in the regular season standings, the following criteria are used to determine post-season seeding:

1. Total points in the regular season.
2. Number of wins in the regular season.
3. Head-to-head record between teams in the regular season (Applicable only if equal amount of games have been played between tied teams).
4. Fewest total penalty minutes in the regular season.
5. Fewest goals allowed in the regular season.
6. Most goals scored in the regular season.
7. Coin toss.

(Note: If three teams are tied, once a team is determined as the higher seed, the tiebreaker reverts to step 1 of the criteria between two remaining teams, if necessary.)

The preliminary post-season schedule matchups for the C3 tier:

Playoff rules/tiebreakers

• There will be no overtime in round-robin pool play. Pool play games will end in ties and will count in the standings.
• If at any time the score differential is six or greater in the third period, the clock will convert to running time. If at any time the score differential goes below six goals, the clock will revert back to stop time.
• In championship games, if at the end of the three periods the score is tied, the teams shall play one overtime period of five minutes, running time. If at the end of the overtime period the score is still tied, a shootout will take place. Shootout rules are as follows:
  • Three players from each team participate in the order the team captain selects. The home team will elect whether to shoot first or second.
  • Each team takes three shots in alternating fashion. The team with the most goals after those six (or fewer) shots is the winner.
  • If the score remains tied, the shootout will proceed to a “sudden death” format. No skater may participate more than once until all other skaters have participated.
• Tiebreakers for pool standings:
  1. Most points
  2. Wins
  3. Head-to-head
  4. Goal differential (six goals maximum per game)
  5. Fewest goals against
  6. Fewest minor penalties
  7. Fewest total penalty minutes
  8. Earliest goal scored
  9. Coin toss

  (Note: If three teams are tied, once a team is determined as the higher seed, the tiebreaker reverts to step 1 of the criteria between two remaining teams, if necessary.)

For more information, see the full AHA Winter Playoff info page and the full AHA Winter Playoff schedule.