The Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) is the professional ice hockey league in the United Kingdom. This weekend is one of the biggest in the EIHL calendar with the Playoff Final Weekend taking place at Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham. Four games. Two days. One winner.
Arguably the most prestigious award up for grabs within the EIHL, the winner this weekend will have triumphed against the other 9 teams in the league. At the end of the regular season, the top 8 teams in the league standing qualify for playoffs, with a 1-8 format allowing home ice advantage for the higher seeded team. Four match ups are decided to play in the quarter finals.
These quarter final games take place over one weekend, with an aggregate score accumulated over a home and away leg. The winner of each of these forms the final four teams, those who will play in the highly anticipated playoff weekend.
With increasing attendance rates throughout the league, playoff weekend has been known to often sell-out, or be close to it. This weekend looks to be no different, with fans travelling from all across the UK to Nottingham.
The final four for 2024 are the Sheffield Steelers, Cardiff Devils, Belfast Giants and Guildford Flames. These teams also had some of the best regular season records, making it clear they are among the strongest this year and have earned their positions as the final four teams this weekend.
The Sheffield Steelers are looking to go for a clean sweep this season, having already claimed the League Champion title as well as winning the in-season tournament the Challenge Cup. Sheffield have truly dominated this season, with an impressive roster, solid goaltending and the best statistics in the league, it’s no surprise they are favourites this playoff weekend.
The Cardiff Devils will set out this weekend to reclaim their title as Playoff Champion after losing out last year in the final to the Belfast Giants. Previous to this, Cardiff were playoff winners for the 3 seasons prior. With the highly-esteemed Pete Russell as coach and plenty playoff experience under their belt, the Devils will be hoping to make an impact this weekend.
The Belfast Giants were last season’s Playoff Champions, and they’ll be searching for a way to retain this title. Despite winning all 3 competitions during the 2022-23 season, the Giants slipped to 3rd place overall in the standings and have struggled to find the same level of success this year. However, this shouldn’t detract from the skill and talent within this year’s Giants team and there is every chance Belfast can still maintain their title this playoffs.
Finally, the Guildford Flames can’t be overlooked as potential winners for this year. Despite finishing the lowest out of the final four group, Guildford earned their spot in the semi-final by a large margin, beating the Manchester Storm 9-1 on aggregate at the end of the quarter final games.
This weekend at Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, Sheffield and Guildford will face off against each other first, kicking off the weekend with a 3pm puck drop on Saturday. Later in the day at 7pm, the second semi-final game will take place between Cardiff and Belfast. The winners of these semi-finals will battle it out in the final at 5pm on Sunday. In addition to this, the 3rd place game will begin at 1pm on the Sunday.
If you would like to watch the EIHL Playoff Final Weekend, all the games will be broadcast on Premier Sports. Subscriptions to Premier Sports are available through streaming, Sky Sports, Prime Video and more. Ice hockey continues to gain more attention and grow with every season in the UK. Despite being most popular in Canada and the United States, hockey belongs in the UK too!