The Alps Hockey League in a new format

Lustenau and Zell am See will kick off the 2017/18 AHL season next Saturday, and from Wednesday things will get really busy for the local ski cracks. “We can hardly wait to get started, after all we have a lot to make up for with our fans after the early playoff exit,” said HC Pustertal captain Armin Helfer, whose anticipation is just as great as that of Ritten’s Christian Borgatello: “The championship season in archived long ago, now everyone starts from scratch. It’s going to be a very exciting season.”

Ljubljana expands the field of participants Three other South Tyrolean teams also want to have a say in the allocation of playoff tickets, namely HC Neumarkt, WSV Sterzing and HC Gröden. In the next few months they will all compete with last year's league rivals Asiago, Fassa, Cortina as well as Bregenzerwald, Lustenau, Zell am See, KAC II, Kitzbühel, the Red Bull Juniors from Salzburg, Feldkirch, Jesenice and newcomer Ljubljana. The traditional club from the capital of Slovenia moved from the EBEL to the second highest division for financial reasons.

“Regional” intermediate rounds increase the explosiveness In addition to the expanded field of participants, the league officials are coming up with another innovation just in time for the start of the season: In the future, a group phase will be inserted after a simple round trip round. One east, one west and two south circles guarantee pure derby atmosphere around the Christmas holidays. For example, champion Ritten competes in his group against HC Pustertal, Cortina and Fassa. Neumarkt, Val Gardena, Vipiteno and Asiago play in parallel circles. These duels count on the one hand for the AHL regular season, at the end of which eight teams qualify for the playoffs, and on the other hand for the respective national championship. The Italian Ice Hockey Association is planning a Final Four for the “Scudetto” with the two best-placed Italian teams in the two seasons.

Apart from that, league officials want to stick to the AHL project that was launched a year ago. “In this championship, the young players get a chance and there is also good ice hockey on offer. “It can continue like this,” announced Italy’s association boss Tomaso Teofoli.

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The Alps Hockey League in a new format

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