It’s starting again!

The draw for the Austrian U16 National Championship was conducted by the Austrian Ice Hockey Federation office following a virtual youth meeting with the participating clubs. The regular season is scheduled to begin with a double-header weekend on 12 September.

In the first championship phase, running until 13 December, 22 matchdays are scheduled in a single home-and-away round robin. The teams will then be split into two placement groups (positions one to six and seven to eleven) to determine the seedings for the subsequent play-offs. The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be played in a best-of-three format, with the championship decided in a best-of-five series.

EC-KAC, the last U16 champions before the 2019/20 season was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, have not entered for the new season. Several EC-KAC players from this age group will take part in the U16 Championship with the HTC/VST Black Bulls joint team. The puck will be dropped two weeks later, on 26 and 27 September, in the Austrian U14 and U12 Championships. The U11 competition will be played in a cross-ice format and features a total of 22 participating teams.

While the European Women’s Hockey League (EWHL) Supercup, featuring Austrian clubs EHV Sabres Wien and DEC Salzburg Eagles, also begins on 12 September, regular EWHL play, in which KEHV Lakers will also participate from Austria, starts on 26 September. The Austrian women’s Bundesligas, which will include a third tier for the first time this year, begin play in October.