Rules, Winter Classic (Oakville Rangers Hockey Club)

General

• All teams must pick-up their tournament swag for players and coaches (22 BarDown hats) upstairs at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex (3070 Neyagawa Boulevard, Oakville, ON ) on Thursday, Friday or Saturday before 6:30PM. Location is upstairs next to Rink 1. You can't miss it and your team should plan to visit even if you don't have a game scheduled at that rink. Lots going on!
• Sixteen Mile Sports Complex is where the Hockey Village is located (vendors, interactive games, Hockey Hall of Fame exhibits,  top trophies (4 Nations Cup, the Calder Cup, the Selke, the Ted Lindsay and the Canada Cup), Puckz Sports Pub, the U16 AAA Showcase games Friday afternoon/evening and the Oakville Blades Junior A game on Saturday night.
• 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 have in past years.
• Tournament schedule, results, standings and rules can be found at Winter Classic > Divisions (Oakville Rangers Hockey Club)
• 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 will be divided into pools of 4 teams, and will play 3 round robin games against opponents within their own pool.

Playoff Rounds: Round of 16, 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
• In all cases, pool winners will be guaranteed one of the top spots to advance to the next round
• 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 Round of 16, 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.

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.
• 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.

Standard Division Advancement Notes

• 12-Team Divisions - Division winners will receive the top 3 seeds, the highest of the 2nd place finishers will receive the 4th seed and placed into semi-final games as stated within the tournament schedule.
• 16-Team Divisions - The top 2 from each division will be seeded and placed into quarter-final games as stated within the tournament schedule.
• 20-Team Divisions - Division winners will receive the top 5 seeds, the 3 highest remaining seeds will receive the 5th, 6th, and 7th seeds and placed into quarter-final games as stated within the tournament schedule.

Division-Specific Advancement & Other Notes

• 18-Team Divisions (U18 Non-Contact) – 3 Pools of 6 teams each will play 3 round robin games within their pool. The top 8 seeds from all pools combined will advance to the Quarter-Finals, with pool winners guaranteed the top 3 spots. The bottom 10 seeds will be placed into Playoff Preparation games.
• 22-Team Divisions (U16 AA) – All pools will play the standard round robin format except for Pool A which will have 6 teams playing 4 round robin games. The top 2 teams from Pool A will advance to the Quarter-Finals, all other teams are eliminated. There is no Pool B. At the end of round robin play, Pools C and D will be combined and Pools E and F will be combined. The top 3 seeds from each combined pool will advance to the Quarter-Finals, with Pool Winners guaranteed the top 2 seeds, placed into their games as noted in the tournament schedule. The bottom 4 seeds from each combined pool will be paired for Playoff Preparation games.
• 24-Team Divisions (U10 AA, U12 AA, U14 AAA, U14 AA, U15 AA) – At the end of round robin play, all 6 pool winners will advance to the Quarter-Finals. Pools A, B, and C will then be combined for further seeding, and Pools D, E, and F will be combined for further seeding. The 4th and 5th seed from each of the combined pools will be Wildcard 1 and Wildcard 2 respectively, and face each other in a Play-In game, with the winners advancing to the final 2 Quarter-Final spots. The 6th through 12th seeds from all pools combined will play each other in Playoff Preparation games.
• 32-Team Divisions (U13 AA) – At the end of round robin play, the top 2 teams from all 8 pools will advance to a Round of 16. Winners of those 8 games will advance to the Quarter-Finals. The 17th through 32nd seeds from all pools combined will play each other in Playoff Preparation games.
• U16 AAA, U18 AAA – All teams will play 4 round robin games versus opponents either within their own pool or from the other pool. The top 2 teams from each pool will advance to the Semi-Finals, all other teams are eliminated.

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:
  1. 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;
  2. If both (or all) tied teams played against each other, the head-to-head record in those games;
  3. The most Wins (W) during all round robin games;
  4. The highest Goal Differential (GF%) calculated as GF / (GF + GA) during all round robin games;
  5. The lowest Goals Against (GA) during all round robin games;
  6. The highest Goals For (GF) during all round robin games;
  7. The fewest Penalty Minutes (PM) during all round robin games;
  8. A random draw.

Period Lengths

• U10 Divisions – 10, 10, 10
• U11 to U13 Divisions – 10, 10, 15
• U14 to U18 Divisions – 10, 15, 15
• Exception: U16 AAA and U18 AAA Divisions – 15, 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, except for U16 AAA and U18 AAA
• 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 (30711) 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.