At long last the AESHL playoffs will
commence on Saturday March 12th with a game at the Eastlink Events
Centre between the Clarenville Ford Caribous and the Harbour Grace HGOE CeeBee
Stars starting at 7:30 PM. On Sunday
March 13th the Pugliesvich Southern Shore Breakers and the Baker
Flooring Conception Bay Blues play at 7:00 PM at the Ken Williams Memorial
Arena.
The regular season schedule concluded on
March 6th with the AESHL’s 5 teams completing a 16-game pandemic
shortened season. The St. John’s Senior
Caps finished in first place with 15 wins, followed by the Breakers in 2nd
place. The Blues, Caribous and Ceebees
finished in 3rd, 4th and 5th place
respectively. All 5 teams will make the
playoffs this season in recognition of the difficulty encountered throughout
the regular season related to playing hockey while keeping everyone safe during
the pandemic.
The playoffs start with a mini-series
between the 4th place Caribous and the 5th place CeeBees
to determine which team advances to the semi-final against the 1st
place Caps. The mini-series is a best 2
out of 3 games playoff. The semi-final
series against the Caps will commence on Friday March 17th at Jack
Byrne Arena. The Semi-finals between the
Breakers and Blues commences on Sunday March 12th. Both semi-finals will be a best 4 out of 7
games affair.
The league’s best 4 out of 7 finals will
commence on the weekend of April 8th. This season, in addition to the AESHL
champion being awarded the Joe Maynard Trophy, the Herder Memorial Trophy will
also be awarded to the AESHL champion.
In a plan developed by Hockey NL Senior Council over the past 2 years
the Herder Memorial Championship would normally involve a play down between all
senior hockey leagues in the province.
Unfortunately, the AESHL was the only senior hockey league that operated
during the 2021/2022 season. Next season,
senior hockey will return to a provincial play down format involving all senior
hockey leagues in the province. More
information on the Herder Championship will follow as the playoffs progress.
Hockey fans are encouraged to get out and watch
some high caliber senior hockey as the AESHL teams compete to win the AESHL and
Herder championships.