The clubs and management of the National Ice Hockey League (NIHL) held their annual section meetings this past weekend and agreed the format of competitions for the 2019/20 season starting in September.

A new ten team national division, NIHL National, comes into existence to sit above the long-standing Division 1 and 2, which are both regionalised into North and South.

Some finer details around exact format of some Cup and Playoff competitions is still to be signed off by some divisions but the details below are confirmed.

NIHL National’s ten teams will be split into two conferences for regular season play. 

Telford Tigers, MK Lightning, Sheffield Steeldogs, Hull Pirates and Leeds Chiefs make up one conference. 

Swindon Wildcats, Bracknell Bees, Basingstoke Bison, Peterborough Phantoms and Raiders make up the other.

Teams will play their own conference four home and four away, while they face the other conference twice at home and twice away.

At the end of the regular season, the top eight teams from the overall standings will qualify for the playoffs.  These will play in two groups of four, one home and one away game, with the groups being 1st-4th-5th-8th and 2nd-3rd-6th-7th.  The top two sides from the groups will qualify for the finals weekend in Coventry.

There will also be a National Cup where the first home game for each club against the nine other clubs will count towards the qualifying standings.  The top four sides from this table will qualify for cup semi finals.

The highest placed qualifier will choose their semi final opponent, with the two remaining sides also matching up.  The Cup should have reached at least the semi final stage by the end of the calendar year.

Swindon Wildcats Head Coach Aaron Nell added:

“It was a positive league meeting and we are really excited to get going in September. It will be a competitive league and I’m sure the fans will enjoy the hockey on show every night. Now the format is agreed, we can start putting plans in place for pre-season and these plans will be announced in due course.”

The annual review of Rules of Competition is underway while clubs will be providing their available dates to the NLMG to begin the fixture list compilation.

The NIHL management would like to thank all clubs and their representatives for their valuable input at the meetings and look forward to working with them to prepare for the new season