Rules, Winter Classic (Oakville Rangers Hockey Club)
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Winter Classic
Presented by BarDown
Jan 16-19, 2025
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Under 10
Under 10 AAA
Under 10 AA
Under 10 A
Under 11
Under 11 AAA
Under 11 AA
Under 11 A
Under 12
Under 12 AAA
Under 12 AA
Under 12 A
Under 13
Under 13 AAA
Under 13 AA
Under 13 A
Under 14
Under 14 AAA
Under 14 AA
Under 14 A Body Contact
Under 14 Non-Contact (A/BB)
Under 15
Under 15 AAA
Under 15 AA
Under 15 A Body Contact
Under 15 Non-Contact (A/BB)
Under 16
Under 16 AAA
Under 16 AA
Under 16 A Body Contact
Under 16 Non-Contact (A/BB)
Under 18
Under 18 AAA
Under 18 AA
Under 18 A Body Contact
Under 18 Non-Contact (A/BB)
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Rules
General
All teams must pick-up their tournament swag for players and coaches (20 BarDown hats) upstairs at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex (3070 Neyagawa Boulevard, Oakville, ON ) on Thursday, Friday or Saturday before 2:00PM. Community Room 1 to the right of the snack bar.
Sixteen Mile Sports Complex is where the Hockey Village is located (vendors, interactive games, Hockey Hall of Fame exhibits, NHL's top individual trophies (Rocket Richard, Conn Smythe, Calder, Vezina), Puckz Sports Pub, the Oakville Blades Junior A game Friday night and the U16 AAA Showcase games Saturday afternoon/evening.
Complaints, concerns and compliments are to be directed to Tourney HQ (in the Oakville Rangers office downstairs at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex). Any distasteful engagement with arena staff, tournament volunteers, timekeepers or on-ice officials will not be tolerated and could result in a default or expulsion. Please take this seriously because we will and did last year.
Tournament schedule, results, standings and rules can be found at
www.oakvillerangers.ca/WinterClassic
This tournament generally runs ahead of schedule and ample time between games has been provided for each team. Therefore,
teams must be prepared to play any game up to 15 minutes early
.
All teams should bring their own dressing room locks. Tournament is not responsible for lost/stolen property.
Home team wears light coloured jerseys - Away team wears dark coloured jerseys.
Team Eligibility
Teams must be registered with Hockey Canada or International affiliates (and/or their Provincial/State affiliates). An official/approved Roster and Travel Permit should have been pre-submitted electronically to the tournament website. If not, you must present your Roster and Permit at Tournament HQ (downstairs at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex) prior to your first game.
All players including APs must be on an approved, pre-submitted roster. No player will be permitted to compete if not on an approved/official roster or card.
Each team may dress up to (17) seventeen players and up to two (2) goaltenders for each game.
Digital Game Sheets
Tournament is using GameSheet Inc. digital game sheets on iPads. Your team’s roster should appear in the system automatically if your team is in the OMHA or you have used a link sent to you to upload your roster. If neither is the case, you will need to manually enter your team into the iPad prior to the game.
At least 25 minutes prior to each game, 1 member of the bench staff must sign digital game sheet at the Tourney Desk
located in each arena. iPads stay at the desk.
Tournament officials cannot change game sheets or overrule/change a call from a referee. When the game is over the score sheet is final.
Divisional Structure & Pools
Round Robin Play
All Round Robin games may end in a tie, and there is no overtime .
There are no timeouts in Round Robin play.
Home/Visiting teams are predetermined for round robin play as indicated in the official tournament schedule.
Unless otherwise noted below, all divisions with 8, 12, or 16 teams will be divided into pools of 4 teams, and will play 3 round robin games against opponents within their own pool.
Exceptions:
U11 AAA (11 teams) is divided into two pools, one with 5 teams and one with 6 teams. Both pools will play 4 round robin games (the division with 6 teams will not play all potential opponents).
U14 AA (15 teams) is divided into three pools of 5 teams each, all will play 4 round robin games.
U18 AAA (7 teams) is a single pool of all 7 teams playing 4 round robin games and will not play all potential opponents.
U13 AAA (13 teams) is divided into three pools, two with 4 teams and one with 5 teams. The pool with 5 teams will play 4 round robin games against teams within their own pool. The two pools with 4 teams will play 3 round robin games against opponents in their own pool.
U16 AAA (8 teams) is divided into two pools of 4 teams. All teams will play 4 round robin games against opponents from the other pool.
Playoff Rounds: Quarter-Finals, Play-Ins, Semi-Finals, Championship
All divisions with 14 or fewer teams will have the top 4 ranked teams advance to Semi-Finals; winners will advance to the Championship Final
All divisions with 15 or more teams will have the top 8 teams advance to Quarter-Finals; winners will advance to Semi-Finals; and winners of those will advance to the Championship Final
All Playoff Round games must decide a winner. If tied after regulation time:
Overtime, as defined below, then if still tied;
Shootout, as defined below
Each team may call one (1) 30-second timeout during any Semi-Final or Championship game. No timeouts during Quarter-Final or Play-In games.
For all Championship final games, home ice is awarded to the team with the higher rank after round robin play.
Divisions with 8 teams – the top 2 teams from each pool will advance to the Semi-Finals where the 1st ranked team from each pool will play the 2nd ranked team from the opposite pool.
Divisions with 12 teams – the 3 winners of each pool will advance to the Semi-Finals, and will be seeded 1, 2, and 3. Then, the highest ranked 2nd place finisher will receive the 4th seed. The Semi-Final pairings will be 1st Seed vs 4th Seed and 2nd Seed vs 3rd Seed, unless the 1st Seed and 4th Seed are from the same pool – in which case the Semi-Final pairings will be 1st Seed vs 3rd Seed and 2nd Seed vs 4th Seed.
Divisions with 16 teams – the top 2 teams from each pool will advance to the Quarter-Finals, where the pairings will be the winners of each pool facing the 2nd place team from a different pool (A1/A2 vs D1/D2, B1/B2 vs C1/C2); the pairings for the Semi-Finals will then be the winners from both A vs D games versus the winners from both B vs C games.
U11 AAA (11 teams) – follows the same as an 8-team division above
U13 AAA (13 teams) – the 1st and 2nd place teams from Pool C will advance to the Semi-Finals. The 2nd place team from Pool A will be paired with the 3rd place team from Pool B for Play-In Game #1. The 2nd place team from Pool B will be paired with the 3rd place team from Pool A for Play-In Game #2. The winner of Play-In Game #1 will then play the 1st place team from Pool B in Play-In Game #3. The winner of Play-In Game #2 will then play the 1st place team from Pool A in Play-In Game #4. The winner of Play-In Game #3 will then play the 1st place team from Pool C in Semi-Final #1, and the winner of Play-In Game #4 will play the 2nd place team from Pool C in Semi-Final #2.
U14 AA (15 teams) – teams from all 3 pools will be ranked #1 to #8, where the 1st place finishers in each pool will be ranked 1-3, the 2nd place finishers in each pool will be ranked 4-6, and two of the 3rd place finishers will be ranked 7 & 8. Quarter-Final games will be paired as 1 vs 8 (QF1), 2 vs 7 (QF2), 3 vs 6 (QF3), and 4 vs 5 (QF4), and Semi-Finals will be winners of QF1 vs QF4 and winners of QF2 vs QF3. In BOTH the Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals the tournament committee reserves the right to adjust the pairings to avoid round robin rematches while preserving the integrity of the rankings.
U16 AAA (8 teams) – the 1st and 2nd place teams from the SAME pool will play in the Semi-Finals.
U18 AAA (7 teams) – the top 4 teams from Pool A will advance to the Semi-Finals, where the 1st ranked team will play the 4th ranked team, and the 2nd ranked team will play the 3rd ranked team.
Playoff Preparation Games
All Playoff Preparation games are consolation games and therefore may end in a tie, and there is no overtime.
All divisions which played 3 round robin games will have non-advancing teams participate in Playoff Preparation games. Divisions with 4 round robin games will not participate in Playoff Preparation games, with the exception of the U16 AAA showcase division.
There are no timeouts in Playoff Preparations games.
For all Playoff Preparation games, home ice is awarded to the team with the higher rank after round robin play.
For all Playoff Preparation games, the tournament committee reserves the right to change the pairings in order to avoid any potential rematch from the round robin – or – teams that participate in the same league during their regular season.
Divisions with 8 teams – the 3rd ranked team from each pool will play each other, and the 4th ranked team from each pool will play each other.
Divisions with 12 teams – teams will be ranked 5th through 12th and will be paired as 5th vs 6th, 7th vs 8th, 9th vs 10th, and 11th vs 12th.
Divisions with 16 teams – teams will be ranked 9th through 16th and will be paired as 9th vs 10th, 11th vs 12th, 13th vs 14th, and 15th vs 16th.
U13 AAA (13 teams) – the 4th ranked team from Pool A and the 4th ranked team from Pool B will be paired.
U16 AAA (8 teams) – the 3rd and 4th place teams from the SAME pool will play in the playoff preparation games.
Tie-Breaking Rules
Ranking of teams, used to determine which teams advance from Round Robin play as well as to determine home ice in the championship final, will be defined as follows:
Most points in all round robin games, where 2 points are awarded for a win, 1 point for a tie, and 0 points for a loss;
If both (or all) tied teams played against each other, the head-to-head record in those games;
The most Wins (W) during all round robin games;
The highest Goal Differential (GF%) calculated as GF / (GF + GA) during all round robin games;
The lowest Goals Against (GA) during all round robin games;
The highest Goals For (GF) during all round robin games;
The fewest Penalty Minutes (PM) during all round robin games;
A random draw.
Period Lengths
U10 Divisions – 10, 10, 10
U11 to U13 Divisions – 10, 10, 15
U14 to U18 Divisions – 10, 15, 15
Period lengths are the same for all Round Robin and Playoff Round games within that division.
No in-game floods for any Division in either Round Robin or Playoff Round games
Teams will be permitted a 2-minute warm-up prior to the game. Teams not ready to start play at the scheduled time and/or when the referee calls the players to centre ice for the initial face off, will be subject to a delay of game penalty and possible forfeit of the game.
Overtime (Playoff Round Only)
One 5-minute period, sudden victory
3-on-3 format. If a team receives a penalty during overtime (or has penalty time remaining at the end of regulation), the opposing team will add another player for each penalty being served, up to a maximum of 5 players.
Shootout (Playoff Round Only)
For the shootout, each team selects 3 players. Teams shoot alternately and all three players shoot. If there is no winner after 3 shots each, then shootout continues in sets of one, using different players. Goalies must be those who were last used in overtime. Flip of coin decides which team shoots first. Continue rotation in same order until there is a winner. If one team completes its player rotation before the other because it has fewer players, without a winner, both teams will be allowed to revert to their starting sequence and to repeat that sequence. A player who is still serving an overtime or regulation time penalty can not participate in the shootout.
Mercy Rule
In round robin games, if the 3rd period begins with a team leading by 5 goals or a team reaches a 5 goal lead during the period, it will be running time for the balance of the period. Time will continue to run throughout the period, regardless of further scoring changes. In the semi-finals or finals, the same Mercy Rules apply UNLESS the trailing team cuts the deficit to 3 goals. In that case, the game will return to stop time for the balance of the game.
Body Checking
No body checking in any U13 and below divisions.
For U14 and above, "A" divisions that permit body checking will be noted as having Body Contact in the name of the division.
For U14 and above, "Non-Contact" divisions could contain teams who normally participate at the "A" level or "BB" level, depending on their league. For clarity, the term "body contact" in these divisions refers to "body checking".
Officiating, Suspensions, & Safety
Due to a province wide post-Covid shortage of certified referees many/most games that often have a 3-official crew will instead have a 2-official crew.
This is an OMHA-sanctioned tournament (12755) and the tournament will be played and officiated according to OMHA rules. Fighting, Game Misconducts, Gross Misconducts and Match Penalties will be subject to suspension lengths as outlined at https://www.omha.net/ .
It is the responsibility of the team to ensure any player or team official who has been assessed a game suspension (GM) sits out the required number of games as per OMHA minimum suspension rules. Failure to comply will result in the offending team forfeiting the game, which will be recorded as a 1 – 0 loss.
All tournament forfeits (not including the above) will result in a 5 – 0 loss.
The tournament committee reserves the right to take measures necessary to ensure a safe tournament for the participants including the modification of any rule(s) herein which is deemed by them to be in the tournament’s best interest. Decisions of the tournament committee are final.
Mouth and neck guards are required if your local governing body requires their use.