The North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) has announced its schedule and format for the 2015 NA3HL Playoffs and Silver Cup Championship.
Semi-Finals: The clubs are seeded within their own division based upon their finish in the NA3HL regular-season standings. The top four clubs from each division qualify for the playoffs. The Club seeded first in each division will compete in a best-of-three series with the fourth seeded Club in the same division. The Club seeded second in each division will compete in a best-of-three-series against the Club seeded third in the same division. The #1 and #2 seeds will have home ice advantage in the first round. The high seed shall have the right to host games one and three. The low seed shall have the right to host game two. Teams may agree to an alternate arrangement upon mutual agreement. The first club to win two games in a division semifinal series will be declared the winner of the series and advance to the next round of playoff competition. The first club to lose two games in a division semifinal series shall be eliminated from further playoff competition.
Finals: The two Clubs in each division that won a division semifinal series shall compete in a best-of-three series against each other in the division finals. The high seed shall have the right to host games one and three. The low seed shall have the right to host game two. Teams may agree to an alternate arrangement upon mutual agreement. The first Club to win two games in a division final series will be declared the winner of the series and advance to the Silver Cup Championship Tournament.
Silver Cup Wildcard: At the conclusion of the Division Finals, the five teams that lost Division Final series shall be ranked from 1-5 based on their regular season point totals. The regular season tiebreaking procedures will be used if necessary. The top-ranked team shall be declared the Silver Cup Wild Card team and shall advance onto the Silver Cup Championship Tournament as the sixth seed.
The five divisional playoff champions along with the wildcard will compete in the six-team NA3HL Championship Tournament, a three-game round robin format followed by a championship game at the Fox Valley Ice Arena, Geneva, Illinois, from March 19-22. Teams will be seeded according to their finish in the NA3HL regular season standings. A round-robin format with two pools will be implemented, with the top two teams advancing to the Silver Cup Championship Game. In the event of a tie after round-robin play, a tiebreaking procedure adopted in the rules and regulations shall be used to break the tie.