35th Annual CHEETAH CHALLENGE – 2024

Tournament Rules

1. All games will be played under School Sport Nova Scotia (SSNS) rules except as outlined below and there will be no protests allowed.

2. Suspensions during the tournament will be based on SSNS guidelines.

3. Players who are under suspension for a gross misconduct, game misconduct or match penalty are ineligible to participate in tournament games unless their suspension terminates during tournament play.

4. Teams should be at the rink one hour before scheduled game times. Teams must be prepared to begin a game up to 20 minutes prior to the scheduled start time if required. When  there are minor hockey games scheduled prior to tournament games, there may be delays in being able to access dressing rooms until the minor teams have vacated the dressing rooms. All teams must comply with Greenfoot Energy Centre (GEC) rules for dressing room keys prior to their games i.e., only team staff will be issued keys.

5. A five-minute warm-up is allowed before each game. All round robin games will be three stop time periods of 15 minutes, with ice resurfacing after the five-minute warm up and after the second period. Semifinals and the Championship game will be two 15-minute stop time periods and a 20 minute, stop time third period with ice resurfacing after the second period.

6. If, at any time during the first two periods of any round robin game, a goal differential of six goals exists, the balance of the game will be played at straight time. If at any time in the third period of any round robin game, a goal differential of four goals exists, the balance of the game will be played at straight time. Once a round robin game switches to be played at straight time, it will not revert to stop time. For all games other than round robin games, if at any time in the third period, a goal differential of five goals exists, the balance of the game will be played at straight time. If the goal differential narrows to four goals, the game will revert to stop time once. Should the differential reach five goals a second time, the balance will be played at straight time.

7. Minor penalties will be two minutes in duration unless the game is being played at straight time at the time of the penalty infraction. Straight time penalties will be three minutes in duration.

8. Ties will not be broken during round robin play.

9. The “Five Point System” will be in effect for the round robin games in the tournament (see #17 "Five Point System" below).

10. In the event a team is unable to play a scheduled game, the other team will be awarded five points with a winning score of 3 to 0.

11. There are three 4-team divisions (A,B, & C). All teams in the 4-team divisions will play a round robin game against each of the other teams in their division. At the end of round robin play, the team with the highest number of points of the 4 teams in their division will advance to the semifinals. The fourth and final team advancing to the semifinals will be the team with the highest number of points accumulated during round robin play from all the divisions. Any ties will be broken by using the tiebreaking procedures outlined in #13 below.

12. After the semifinal teams are determined, the games will match the advancing four teams as follows:

               i. The team with the highest number of points accumulated in the round robin versus the team with the lowest number of points in the round robin.

               ii.The team with the second highest number of points accumulated in the round robin versus the team with the third highest number of points in the round robin.

     The higher ranked team will be the home team in these semifinal games.

13. Ties in points will be broken as follows:

               i.Record of the head-to-head round robin game between tied teams (if applicable).

               ii.The ratio of goals scored divided by goals against from all round robin games (calculated to four decimal points).

               iii.The team with the least penalty minutes from all round robin games.

               iv.A coin flip.

       NOTE: If more than two teams are tied, the highest ranked team will be determined first, then the tie breaking formula will start over to break any remaining ties between those teams remaining.

14. The winners of the semifinal games will meet in the Cheetah Challenge Championship final. The team with the highest number of points in the round robin will be the home team with ties broken as determined in # 13 above.

15. There are no ties for games aside from round robin games. If a semifinal or the Championship Final game is tied at the end of regulation time, there will be a tie-breaking procedure as per the following:

               i. A two-minute break followed by a 5-minute stop time, sudden victory overtime period with 3 skaters per team.

              ii.If the game remains tied and the tournament director determines there is enough time available, a second 5-minute stop time, sudden victory overtime period with 3 skaters per team will continue until the tie is broken. If there is deemed not to be enough time, the teams will go to a 3-player shootout as per the Metro High School Hockey League rules for breaking ties in Regional Playoff games.

              iii.Penalties will be two minutes and will be served in the following manner: (i) the penalized player will serve the penalty, (ii) the penalized team will have the allocated 3 skaters, and the other team will be allowed one additional skater, to a maximum of five. At the first stoppage of play after the penalty has been served, both teams will return to playing with three skaters.

16. Teams will be permitted one, thirty second time-out per game and if a game goes to overtime a second 30 second time out will be permitted.

17. Five Point System - Applies to round robin play only:

     There is 5 points awarded for each round robin game played based on:

                  •Two Points for a win

                  •One Point for a tie

                 •Zero points for a loss

     In addition, one point assigned per period of each game as follows:

                 •One point awarded for a period won

                 •1/2 point awarded for each period tied

                 •Zero points awarded for period lost