2004–05 EIHL season

2004–05 EIHL season
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2004–05 EIHL season
Sport Ice hockey
Founded 2003
No. of teams 7
Country  United Kingdom
Official website

eliteleague.co.uk

< 2003-04 / 2005-06 >
The League logo

The 200405 Elite Ice Hockey League season was the second season of the British Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL). Manchester Phoenix did not ice due as they could not agree a deal with the Manchester Evening News Arena.[1]

The second season of the EIHL saw a series of games between the EIHL clubs and the members of the British National League (BNL). In addition to three home games and three away games against their Elite opponents, each club also played one home game and one away game against the BNL clubs in crossover matchups. Results in these crossover games would count towards a team's points tally. The NHL lockout also saw a number of National Hockey League (NHL) players join British clubs. Coventry Blaze won a Grand Slam of all three titles, winning the Championship with an overtime victory over the Nottingham Panthers.[2]

The crossover games with the BNL clubs were seen by many to be the first stage towards the amalgamation of the two organisations into one league. However, early in the season it was revealed that teams including Edinburgh Capitals and Newcastle Vipers were seeking to resign from the BNL and join the Elite League.[3] A withdrawal of these clubs would leave the BNL with only a small number of participating teams. This situation led to the resigning teams temporarily withdrawing their Elite League applications and entering into collective discussions on the entire BNL joining the EIHL instead. The Elite League offered the BNL clubs invitations to join the EIHL structure,[4] which were declined due to unfavourable terms. Subsequently Edinburgh and Newcastle resubmitted individual applications to the Elite League, both of which were accepted. A combination of this and Bracknell Bees owner John Nike's announcement that he was withdrawing funding from the BNL team prompted the collapse of the BNL at the end of the 2004–05 season.

Challenge Cup

During the early part of the season, the results from league games also counted towards a separate Challenge Cup table. However, in a change to the previous season, there were two groups of teams, Group A with three teams and Group B with four teams. After each team had played each team in their group once at home and once away, the top two teams of each group qualified for the semi finals.

Group A

Group A GP W T OTL1 L GF GA Pts
Coventry Blaze 4 2 1 1 0 11 10 6
Sheffield Steelers 4 3 0 0 1 10 8 6
Basingstoke Bison 4 0 1 1 2 10 13 2

1 1 point awarded for an overtime loss.

Group B

Group B GP W T OTL1 L GF GA Pts
Cardiff Devils 6 5 0 0 1 17 8 10
Nottingham Panthers 6 3 1 0 2 19 15 7
Belfast Giants 6 3 0 0 3 14 15 6
London Racers 6 0 1 1 4 9 21 2

1 1 point awarded for an overtime loss.

Semi Finals

Winner A (Coventry) vs Runner-up B (Nottingham)

Winner B (Cardiff) vs Runner-up A (Sheffield)

Final

First Leg

Second Leg

Elite League Table

The top six teams qualified for the playoffs.

Regular season standings GP W T OTL L GF GA Pts
Coventry Blaze 50 33 6 5 6 181 104 77
Belfast Giants 50 31 7 2 10 170 104 71
Cardiff Devils 50 30 4 1 15 152 121 65
Nottingham Panthers 50 25 5 6 14 136 101 61
Sheffield Steelers 50 25 5 3 17 118 110 58
London Racers 50 19 9 3 19 116 124 50
Basingstoke Bison 50 15 5 2 28 128 178 37

Elte League Play Offs

The top six teams qualified for the playoffs. Group A consisted of Coventry, Nottingham and London while Group B consisted of Belfast, Cardiff and Sheffield. Each team played the other teams in its group twice at home and twice away. The top two of each group then qualified for the playoff weekend at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham.

Group A

Group A GP W T OTL L GF GA Pts
Coventry Blaze 8 5 2 0 1 29 15 12
Nottingham Panthers 8 3 2 0 3 21 29 8
London Racers 8 2 0 0 6 19 25 4

Group B

Group B GP W T OTL L GF GA Pts
Cardiff Devils 8 4 3 0 1 18 12 11
Sheffield Steelers 8 3 4 0 1 22 15 10
Belfast Giants 8 0 3 0 5 14 27 3

Semi Finals

Winner A vs Runner-up B

Winner B vs Runner-up A

Third place playoff

Loser A vs Loser B

Final

Winner A vs Winner B

Other competitions

Crossover Cup

Crossover Cup GP W T OTL L GF GA Pts
Belfast Giants 14 12 1 1 0 67 27 26
Cardiff Devils 14 12 0 0 2 62 31 24
Nottingham Panthers 14 11 0 1 2 55 27 23
Coventry Blaze 14 10 0 1 3 57 31 21
London Racers 14 9 1 0 4 46 33 19
Basingstoke Bison 14 9 0 1 4 59 48 19
Sheffield Steelers 14 8 1 0 5 39 29 17
Bracknell Bees 14 7 1 1 5 48 33 16
Guildford Flames 14 4 1 1 8 33 44 10
Dundee Stars 14 4 0 0 10 29 56 8
Hull Stingrays 14 4 0 0 10 22 52 8
Fife Flyers 14 3 0 1 10 40 69 7
Newcastle Vipers 14 2 1 1 10 24 56 6
Edinburgh Capitals 14 0 0 1 13 30 75 1

Awards

All Star teams

First Team Position Second Team
Jody Lehman, Coventry Blaze G Martin Klempa, Belfast Giants
Neal Martin, Coventry Blaze D Wade Belak, Coventry Blaze
Doug Schueller, Coventry Blaze D Calle Carlsson, Nottingham Panthers
Tony Hand, Belfast Giants F John Cullen, Cardiff Devils
Adam Calder, Coventry Blaze F George Awada, Belfast Giants
Vezio Sacratini, Cardiff Devils F Ashley Tait, Coventry Blaze

Scoring leaders

The scoring leaders are taken from all league games.

References

Footnotes

  1. "Phoenix pull out of league". BBC. 2004-07-08. Retrieved 2007-12-05.
  2. "Grand Slam triumph for Coventry". BBC. 2005-04-10. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
  3. Nigel Duncan (2004). "Capitals eyeing their place among the elite". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2006-07-03.
  4. Bolton Evening News (2005). "Leagues look set to merge at last". This is Lancashire. Archived from the original on 2006-02-16. Retrieved 2006-07-03.
Preceded by
2003–04 EIHL season
EIHL seasons Succeeded by
2005–06 EIHL season
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