2010–11 EIHL season

2010–11 EIHL season
2010–11 EIHL season
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	2003
No. of teams	10
Country(ies)	United Kingdom
TV partner(s)	Sky Sports
Official website	eliteleague.co.uk

The 2010-11 Elite Ice Hockey League season started on August 25, 2010, with the annual Charity Shield match between Coventry Blaze and Belfast Giants. The League proper started on September 4. Two new teams joined for the 2010-11 season- the Braehead Clan and the Dundee Stars. Sky Sports broadcasted one live game every Friday, and also showed the Belfast Giants v Nottingham Panthers opening night game live. After the opening of the season, Sky Sports showed a live game once every month.

Teams

Team	Arena(s)
Belfast Giants	Odyssey Arena
Braehead Clan	Braehead Arena
Cardiff Devils	Cardiff Arena
Coventry Blaze	SkyDome Arena
Dundee Stars	Dundee Ice Arena
Edinburgh Capitals	Murrayfield Ice Rink
Hull Stingrays	Hull Arena
Newcastle Vipers	Whitley Bay Ice Rink
Nottingham Panthers	National Ice Centre
Sheffield Steelers	Motorpoint Arena/IceSheffield

League Mascot

The EIHL appointed an official mascot called Rory, who wears a light blue hockey jersey and the number 00.

Pre Season

Charity Shield

The 2010 Charity Shield game took place at 7.30pm on August 25, 2010. The match was contested between Coventry Blaze and the Belfast Giants. The Giants won the match 4-2.

Boston Bruins Select Game

On Saturday, October 2 the Belfast Giants select side, made of Elite League Players played a Boston Bruins select side at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. Boston won the match 5-1.

	1st period	2nd Period	3rd Period	Final score
Boston Bruins	0	3	2	5
Belfast Giants	0	1	0	1

Period 1

No scoring

Period 2

Goals

Boston Bruins	Belfast Giants
Tyler Seguin (16:30)	Jade Galbraith (15:40)
Zdeno Chara (18:20)
Dennis Seidenberg (19:02)

Penalties

Period 3

Goals

Boston Bruins	Belfast Giants
Milan Lucic (9:56)
Tyler Seguin (16:32)

Penalties

Challenge Cup

As of 6th February 2011.

• NOTE: Some Cup games double up as League games due to scheduling constraints.

Top 2 in each group qualify for Semi-Finals

(Q) means teams has qualified for Semi-Finals

Group A

Position	Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Belfast Giants (Q)	8	5	1	2	31	20	+11	12
2	Newcastle Vipers (Q)	8	4	2	2	32	29	+3	10
3	Braehead Clan	8	4	3	1	31	24	+7	9
4	Edinburgh Capitals	8	3	4	1	24	27	-3	7
5	Dundee Stars	8	0	6	2	18	36	-18	2

Group B

Position	Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Nottingham Panthers (Q)	8	3	1	4	23	15	+8	10
2	Cardiff Devils (Q)	8	3	1	4	33	31	+2	10
3	Sheffield Steelers	8	4	3	1	32	29	+3	9
4	Coventry Blaze	8	3	4	1	22	23	-1	7
5	Hull Stingrays	8	1	5	2	19	31	-12	4

Knockout Stages

• The Knockout Stages will be played over 2-Legs, Home and Away. (Aggregate Scores shown, First and Second Leg scores in brackets)

	Semi Finals					Final
	Belfast Giants		5 (4, 1)
	Cardiff Devils		2 (0, 2)
						Belfast Giants		3 (1,2)
						Nottingham Panthers		4 (3,1 )
	Nottingham Panthers		18 (3, 15)
	Newcastle Vipers		4 (4, 0)

League table

As of 15th March 2011

• NOTE: (Q) means team has qualified for playoffs

Top 8 Teams qualify for Playoffs

Place	Team Name	GP	W	L	OTL	SOL	Pts
1	Sheffield Steelers (Q)	54	43	10	0	1	87
2	Cardiff Devils (Q)	54	42	9	2	1	87
3	Belfast Giants (Q)	54	41	9	2	2	86
4	Nottingham Panthers (Q)	54	33	15	1	5	72
5	Braehead Clan (Q)	54	28	23	0	3	59
6	Coventry Blaze (Q)	54	23	27	2	2	50
7	Hull Stingrays (Q)	54	23	28	3	0	49
8	Dundee Stars (Q)	54	19	32	0	3	41
9	Newcastle Vipers	54	12	40	0	2	26
10	Edinburgh Capitals	54	6	45	1	2	15

Aladdin 20-20 Cup

The success of the Aladdin 20-20 Cup during the previous season led the EIHL to schedule a second such contest. The second 20-20 Cup took place in Nottingham on Saturday, 12th March 2011 and included four teams: the Nottingham Panthers, Sheffield Steelers, Coventry Blaze and Braehead Clan.

The Braehead Clan captured their first EIHL trophy, defeating the host Nottingham Panthers by a score of 3-0. Braehead goaltender J.F. Parras kept a clean sheet in the final and Adam Walker, Ryan Campbell and captain Brendan Cook all scored.

Playoffs

The end of season playoffs were held at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham during the weekend of 2 and 3 April 2011.

The weekend began with the biggest rivalry in the game, with the Sheffield Steelers playing the Nottingham Panthers. Sheffield took an early 2-goal advantage, but Panthers fought back, and went on to steal the game 4-3 in overtime, Robert Lachowicz scoring the winning goal. The second semi-final between Cardiff Devils and Belfast Giants saw Cardiff win by 4 goals to 1, seen by many as an upset, as Belfast were fancied to take the crown.

The title was won by the Nottingham Panthers after defeating Cardiff Devils 5-4 in a closely fought final, where again Nottingham came from two goals down.

	Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Final
	1	Sheffield Steelers	8 (6,2)
	8	Dundee Stars	5 (1,4)
						Sheffield Steelers		3
						Nottingham Panthers		4 (after OT)
	4	Nottingham Panthers	8 (5,3)
	5	Braehead Clan	4 (4,0)
											Nottingham Panthers		5
											Cardiff Devils		4
	3	Belfast Giants	4 (2,2)
	6	Coventry Blaze	3 (2,1) (after SO)
						Cardiff Devils		4
						Belfast Giants		1
	2	Cardiff Devils	8 (2,6)
	7	Hull Stingrays	4 (1,3)

Elite League Awards

Award	Winner	Second	Score
League			X
Playoff
All star game
Challenge Cup
Netminder of the year			X
Defence of the year			X
Forward of the year			X
British Player of the year			X
Newcomer of the year			X
Player of the year			X
Coach of the year			X
Fans favourite			X
Entertainer of the year			X