The 2011–12 North Sea Cup was the second and final season of the North Sea Cup, the highest level of

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, before the league reverted to its traditional name, the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

, and its traditional format.

Teams

Teams participating in the league changed before and during the season. Prior to the start of the season, Nijmegen Devils announced a one-year hiatus from the North Sea Cup for 2011-2012. The Belgian team Leuven Chiefs moved from the Belgian National League up to the North Sea Cup for 2011-2012. An expansion team known as the "Amsterdam Capitals" joined the league, with many of the same people as the defunct Amstel Tijgers of the Dutch

White Caps Turnhout The White Caps Turnhout were an ice hockey team in Turnhout, Belgium. The White Caps played in the Belgian Hockey League and North Sea Cup. They played their home games in Kempisch Ijsstadion. History The club was founded in 1981, and won their ...

dropped out of the league midway through the season after it lost most of its players to injury and defections; games played against Turnhout will not be counted in the season standings. At the end of the season, the Leuven Chiefs announced that they, too, were leaving the North Sea Cup tournament. The North Sea Cup was therefore disbanded and the last remaining Belgian team, HYC Herentals, was admitted as a full member of the "Eredivisie" Dutch league for the 2012-2013 season.

Format

The format of the North Sea Cup was changed for the 2011-2012 season. The number of regular season games was reduced from 28 to 16, to allow for longer

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

and

Dutch Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

tournaments which are played before the North Sea Cup. With the loss of Turnhout from the league, the season consisted of 14 games, as each of the eight teams played each other twice. HYS The Hague edged out Geleen Eaters on goal differential to win the North Sea Cup tournament, as both teams attained 36 points. The standings of the Dutch teams in the North Sea Cup regular season determined the playoff pools for the quarter-final round of the Dutch National Championship playoffs. Pool A consisted of the Dutch team ranked first (The Hague), third (Tilburg) and fifth (Friesland), while Pool B consisted of the Dutch teams ranked second (Geleen), fourth (Eindhoven) and sixth (Amsterdam). The Belgian national championships was determined among the two Belgian teams competing in the North Sea Cup, namely Herentals and Leuven, plus the team that dropped out, Turnhout. Herentals won all of the games of the round-robin and the finals against Leuven, winning the National Championship.

Regular season

Playoffs

Dutch Championship Semi-Finals * Geleen beats Tilburg 3 wins to none * The Hague beats Eindhoven 3 wins to none Dutch Championship Finals * Geleen beats The Hague 3 wins to 2 Belgian Championship Finals * HYC Herentals beats Leuven 3 wins to none

References

External links

Results at official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:North Sea Cup 2011-12 Season 2 North Sea Cup Neth Neth