It can be debatable whether or not the shootout is popular in the NHL. However it has been popular at the college level and that trend will continue when college hockey’s newest league starts play in a few weeks. The National Collegiate Hockey Conference- consisting of former WCHA members Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha, North Dakota and St. Cloud State and former CCHA members Miami and Western Michigan.
The shootout will take place after the NCAA-mandated five minute overtime. For NCAA records purposes the games will officially be counted as a tie. All conference games and non-conference games where a NCHC school is the home team (provided the away team approves) will have the shootout. For conference games, three points will be at stake per game. Three points will be earned with a win in regulation or overtime. Each team will receive a point should the game enter the shootout with the shootout winning team receiving one more point. The losing team in regulation or shootout will receive zero points according to a USCHO report last week.
Each team will have three shooters in the shootout, and if the score is still tied after the first three shooters then sudden-death rules apply until a winner is determined. NCHC tournament games will not feature shootouts with the exception of the third-place game of the NCHC championship that will use a five-minute, sudden-death overtime followed by the shootout.
It should also be noted that shootout results will not be used to break ties in the standings. When determining the final seeding for the conference tournament, games ending in a shootout will be considered a tie.
The first slate of conference games will take place November 1 when six of the eight members square off. Western Michigan will host Colorado College, St. Cloud State travels to North Dakota, and Nebraska Omaha will travel to Denver. Miami and Minnesota Duluth have non-league games against Canusius and Ohio State, respectively.
The NCHC also has a national television contract with CBS Sports Network. The network recently moved to a more widely-available television package on DirecTV (Ch. 221) where 15 regular season games and the conference tournament semifinals and final will be available to 99 million homes across the country.
