Puck Drop: win2day ICE Hockey League gets fully under way

The sporting chase for defending champions EC Red Bull Salzburg begins on Friday. The win2day ICE Hockey League serves up some hot match-ups in the very first round. The headline fixture is the clash between the nine-time Austrian champions and seven-time league champions, and the spusu Vienna Capitals.

16 September 20222 min read

The win2day ICE Hockey League and the ÖEHV set the course for a successful future for ice hockey in recent months with a new cooperation agreement.

A new roster rule was also adopted, requiring each of the eight Austrian clubs to list twelve players eligible for the ÖEHV national team on the game sheet from the 2022/23 season onwards, at least two of whom must be in the U24 age group. This rule also applies to the other participating league nations.

The new season will be contested by 13 teams. With the BEMER Pioneers Vorarlberg and Migross Supermercati Asiago Hockey, two new teams will also be chasing defending champions EC Red Bull Salzburg.

312 games before the playoffs

The regular season, which begins on Friday and runs until the end of February, will be played in two home-and-away rounds of 48 games per team each.

This means that all thirteen teams will play each other four times in a total of 312 games. The top 6 teams will then qualify directly for the quarter-finals. The teams placed seventh to tenth will contest the pre-play-offs in a best-of-three format. There are several favourites for the title.

Fans of the win2day ICE Hockey League primarily see defending champions EC Red Bull Salzburg and EC KAC at the top. In a fan vote conducted by the league, the two teams finished first and second, followed by EC iDM Wärmepumpen VSV.

The league will also follow the CHL Rulebook with immediate effect, which has also been adopted by the IIHF Unified Rulebook.

While the win2day ICE Hockey League is gathering pace, the leagues run by the ÖEHV are already under way or will begin in the coming days and weeks. All games in the leagues organised by the ÖEHV will be livestreamed from the start of this season. All the information on Ice Hockey Live can be found here!