2015-16 USP3HL Season

This is the 2015-16 United States Premier 3 Hockey League  season. This was the league's third season under the USPHL umbrella and its first season under this name. The league was previously known as the USPHL Empire Division. Prior to this the league was known as the Empire Junior Hockey League.

Franchise changes

 * The Daytona Racers and Charlotte Rush were added as expansion teams.
 * The East Coast Eagles were renamed the Carolina Eagles.
 * The league membership of the New York Jr. Aviators was transferred to the Rye, New York based New York Dragons organization. The Aviator franchise was attempting to transfer to the North American 3 Eastern Hockey League but the transfer of the franchise ran into problems and fell through for the 2015-16 season.
 * The Bay State Breakers, Islanders Hockey Club, P.A.L. Jr. Islanders, Rochester Jr. Americans, and South Shore Kings stopped operating teams in the league.
 * On August 27, 2015 the Adirondack Jr. Wings announced they were suspending operations of their junior level team in the USP3HL, but were continuing to operate a team at the midget level.
 * The New York Dragons franchise was later dropped from the league

Member Teams
The USP3 consists of 17 organizations located along the East Coast spanning from Massachusetts to Florida.

South Division
The top 8 teams in the South Division qualify for the playoffs, which were seeded by winning percentage not points due to an uneven number of games played by the teams. The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds are best-of-three. The remaining two teams advancing to the 8 team championship tournament also involving the 4 remaining teams from the USPHL Midwest and the remaining 2 teams from the USP3HL's North Division.

North Division
The top four teams in the North Divsion qualify for the playoffs. The teams will play a round robin with the top two teams advancing to the 8 team championship tournament also involving the 4 remaining teams from the USPHL Midwest and the remaining 2 teams from the USP3HL's South Division.

South Division Quarterfinals

 * Hampton Roads Whalersdefeated Carolina Eagles 2 games to none (2-1, 5-4 (ot))
 * Atlanta Jr. Knights defeated Richmond Generals2 games to none (6-5 (ot), 4-3 (ot))
 * Florida Eels defeated Tampa Bay Juniors 2 games to 1 (6-5 (ot), 3-5, 5-1)
 * Florida Jr. Blades defeated Palm Beach Hawks 2 games to none (10-4, 5-0)

Results

 * Jersey Hitmen defeated Frederick Freeze 7-2
 * Jersey Shore Whalers defeated Boston Jr Bruins 4-1
 * Boston Jr. Bruins defeated Jersey Hitmen 7-4
 * Jersey Shore Whalers defeated Frederick Freeze 4-1
 * Jersey Hitmen defeated Jersey Shore Whalers 4 to 2
 * Frederick Freeze defeated Boston Jr Bruins 5-4

Standings
Jersey Hitmen and Jersey Shore Whalers advance to USP3HL championship.

South Division Semifinals
The semifinal winners in both divisions advance to the USP3HL Championship tournament held March 9-11, 2016 at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
 * Hampton Roads Whalers defeated Atlanta Knights 2 games to none (4-2, 6-2)
 * Florida Eels defeated Florida Jr. Blades 2 games to 1 (10-1, 2-5, 3-2)

Format
The four remaining teams from the USP3HL playoffs and the four remaining teams from the USPHL Midwest playoffs were put into a tournament held March 9-11, 2016 at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The teams were placed in two pools of four teams (2 from each league per pool). The teams played a single round robin over two days with the top two teams moving the semifinal round with the top team from one pool playing the second place team in the other pool in the single game semifinal round, the semifinal winners met for the championship later that day.

Round Robin Games
The game between the two Midwest teams in each pool were not played.
 * Dells defeated Hampton Roads 3-0
 * Jersey Shore defeated Tri-City 5-2
 * Jersey tied Traverse City 2-2
 * Florida defeated Forest Lake 3-1
 * Hampton Roads defeated Jersey Shore 3-1
 * Dells defeated Jersey Shore 6 to 1
 * Hampton Roads defeated Tri-City 5-3
 * Jersey defeated Florida 5-4
 * Jersey tied Forest Lake 2-2
 * Florida defeated Traverse City 3-0

Semifinals

 * Dells defeated Florida 5-2
 * Hampton Roads defeated Jersey 4-3 (ot)

Final

 * Dells defeated Hampton Roads 5-0