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The 2006–07 Elite Ice Hockey League season commenced on September 9, 2006 and concluded on April 8, 2007. It was the Elite League's fourth season of competition.

There was a reduction of one in the number of foreign trained players ('imports') a club was allowed to have signed at one time, with a limit of ten per team. The number of players requiring a work permit (non-British and European Union citizens) was increased from five to nine.

Clubs also had a greater number of North American players to choose from. Previously, EIHL teams were only able to sign players who had played in the NHL, AHL and ECHL, something which essentially limited EIHL clubs to a small pool of ECHL players and inflated wage demands. These new rules allowed clubs to sign players from the CHL and the UHL.

The Nottingham Panthers represented the United Kingdom in the 2006–07 Continental Cup because the 2005–06 champions Belfast Giants and runner-up Newcastle Vipers declined to take part in the tournament.

Notable events[]

  • With planning permission granted for a new rink, the Manchester Phoenix entered a team into competitions for the first time since 2003–04. While waiting for the Altrincham Ice Dome to be completed, the Phoenix played home matches at the Deeside Leisure Centre and at IceSheffield. After numerous delays the Ice Dome finally opened on February 25, 2007 with a 5-4 defeat to the Basingstoke Bison.
  • The Hull Stingrays were elected to join the Elite League from the second tier English Premier League. This brought the number of actively participating members in British ice hockey's top flight to ten, the highest number since 1995–96.
  • The Cardiff Devils moved to a new ice rink in Cardiff Bay. After playing on the road for the first three months of the season, the Devils played their first game at the Cardiff Bay Ice Rink on December 6, 2006 with a 7-4 victory over Manchester. Despite their difficulties, the Devils won the Knockout Cup with a 3-0 victory over Coventry Blaze in the final at the SkyDome.
  • The Coventry Blaze won their second league title in three seasons, confirming the championship with a 5-1 victory over the Edinburgh Capitals on March 21, 2007 with two games to spare. The Blaze also won a second Challenge Cup with a 9-4 aggregate victory over the Sheffield Steelers in the final.
  • The Nottingham Panthers clinched their first Play Off Championship since 1989 with a penalty shots win over the Cardiff Devils. The Panthers won each round of the play offs on penalty shots, defeating their arch rivals Sheffield in the quarter finals and the Belfast Giants in the semi finals before claiming the trophy on April 8, 2007.

Challenge Cup[]

The preliminary round saw Coventry, Hull, Manchester and Sheffield advance to the semi finals. Coventry were drawn to face Manchester and Hull drawn against Sheffield.

Semi finals[]

Date Home Away Result Venue
1 December 16 Coventry Blaze 4 Manchester Phoenix 1 Final SkyDome Arena
2 December 17 Manchester Phoenix 2 Coventry Blaze 2 Final Deeside Leisure Centre
Coventry win 6-3 on aggregate
Date Home Away Result Venue
1 January 10 Sheffield Steelers 5 Hull Stingrays 3 Final Hallam FM Arena
2 January 24 Hull Stingrays 0 Sheffield Steelers 1 Final Hull Arena
Sheffield win 6-3 on aggregate

Final[]

Date Home Away Result Venue
1 February 14 Coventry Blaze 4 Sheffield Steelers 3 Final SkyDome Arena
2 March 27 Sheffield Steelers 1 Coventry Blaze 5 Final Hallam FM Arena
Coventry win 9-4 on aggregate

League[]

Final table[]

Team P W W(OT) L OTL GF GA Pts
1 Coventry Blaze 54 31 5 15 3 188 129 75
2 Belfast Giants 54 27 7 17 3 192 153 71
3 Cardiff Devils 54 22 10 17 5 175 152 69
4 Sheffield Steelers 54 26 4 16 8 163 154 68
5 Nottingham Panthers 54 25 4 17 8 184 149 66
6 Manchester Phoenix 54 21 5 22 6 185 184 58
7 Basingstoke Bison 54 21 2 25 6 161 185 52
8 Newcastle Vipers 54 22 2 29 1 151 169 49
9 Hull Stingrays 54 15 3 33 3 114 174 39
10 Edinburgh Capitals 54 14 4 33 3 160 224 39

Playoffs[]

Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final
         
1 Coventry Blaze 5
8 Newcastle Vipers 4
1 Coventry Blaze 2
3 Cardiff Devils 3
3 Cardiff Devils 4
6 Manchester Phoenix 3
3 Cardiff Devils 1
5 Nottingham Panthers 2
2 Belfast Giants 8
7 Basingstoke Bison 4
2 Belfast Giants 1
5 Nottingham Panthers 2
4 Sheffield Steelers 5
5 Nottingham Panthers 6

Quarter finals[]

Quarter Final 1: (1) Coventry Blaze vs. (8) Newcastle Vipers[]

Date Home Away Result Venue
1 March 31 Newcastle Vipers 1 Coventry Blaze 0 Final Metro Radio Arena
2 April 1 Coventry Blaze 5 Newcastle Vipers 3 Final (OT) SkyDome Arena
Coventry win 5-4 on aggregate after overtime

Quarter Final 2: (2) Belfast Giants vs. (7) Basingstoke Bison[]

Date Home Away Result Venue
1 March 31 Belfast Giants 3 Basingstoke Bison 1 Final Odyssey Arena
2 April 1 Basingstoke Bison 3 Belfast Giants 5 Final Planet Ice Silverdome
Belfast win 8-4 on aggregate

Quarter Final 3: (3) Cardiff Devils vs. (6) Manchester Phoenix[]

Date Home Away Result Venue
1 March 31 Cardiff Devils 3 Manchester Phoenix 1 Final Cardiff Bay Ice Rink
2 April 1 Manchester Phoenix 2 Cardiff Devils 1 Final Altrincham Ice Dome
Cardiff win 4-3 on aggregate

Quarter Final 4: (4) Sheffield Steelers vs. (5) Nottingham Panthers[]

Date Home Away Result Venue
1 March 31 Nottingham Panthers 4 Sheffield Steelers 2 Final National Ice Centre
2 April 1 Sheffield Steelers 3 Nottingham Panthers 2 Final (PS) Hallam FM Arena
Nottingham win 6-5 on aggregate after penalty shots

Semi finals[]

Semi Final 1: (1) Coventry Blaze vs. (3) Cardiff Devils[]

Date Home Away Result Venue
1 April 7 Coventry Blaze 2 Cardiff Devils 3 Final National Ice Centre
Cardiff win 3-2

Semi Final 2: (2) Belfast Giants vs. (5) Nottingham Panthers[]

Date Home Away Result Venue
1 April 7 Belfast Giants 1 Nottingham Panthers 2 Final (PS) National Ice Centre
Nottingham win 2-1 after penalty shots

Grand final[]

(3) Cardiff Devils vs. (5) Nottingham Panthers[]

Date Home Away Result Venue
1 April 8 Cardiff Devils 1 Nottingham Panthers 2 Final (PS) National Ice Centre
Nottingham win 2-1 after penalty shots

Awards[]

All Star teams[]

First Team Position Second Team
Trevor Koenig, Coventry Blaze G Ratislav Rovnianek, Nottingham Panthers
Neal Martin, Coventry Blaze D Tyson Teplitsky, Cardiff Devils
Jan Krajicek, Nottingham Panthers D Jonathan Weaver, Newcastle Vipers
Mark Smith, Cardiff Devils F Dan Carlson, Coventry Blaze
Adam Calder, Coventry Blaze F Johan Molin, Manchester Phoenix
Dan Tessier, Sheffield Steelers F Sean McAslan, Nottingham Panthers

References[]

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 2006–07 EIHL season. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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