The Representative Chairman of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL), Mr Peter John Hartshorne, confirmed the 2024 Finals format on our live show, Hockey Night in Australia. Hockey Hype Australia is pleased to reveal arrangements during the final weekend of August.

Governors decide top-three to qualify in 2025

Fans were already aware the top three teams from each conference would qualify for Finals weekend – August 23-25, 2024 at O’Brien Icehouse in Docklands, Melbourne. Mr Hartshorne confirmed the team governors made the decision that the top three in each conference would likewise qualify for finals in the 2025 AIHL season.

Finals format

On Friday, the second placed teams in the Hellyer and Rurak conference will play the third placed team in the opposing conference in a preliminary final round. The winners move on to Saturday, with the losers eliminated.

Saturday’s games will feature the top placed team in each conference playing the winners from Friday’s preliminary finals in the semi-finals. There is no fixed bracket to determine who plays whom in the following round.

On June 30, a coin flip or other random process by an independent director will determine the matchups for the conference winners and preliminary final winners in Saturday’s semi-finals. Hockey Hype Australia will request to be part of the process to livestream the event.

The winners of Saturday will progress, of course, to the Grand Final on Sunday. The winner of Sunday takes home Goodall Cup, the fifth oldest known ice hockey trophy still being awarded worldwide.

You can watch the replay of the show by clicking here for Facebook and clicking here for YouTube. Or, you can watch the video below. Mr Hartshorne was kind enough to answer other viewer questions during the show.

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