The National Ice Hockey League (NIHL) is a set of professional
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
leagues administered by the
English Ice Hockey Association
The English Ice Hockey Association (EIHA) is the governing body of ice hockey in England and Wales. It was formed in 1982 and featured around 60 teams. EIHA is one of several bodies regulating ice hockey in the United Kingdom, along with Scott ...
. It is currently the second tier of British ice hockey, below the
Elite Ice Hockey League
The Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL), sometimes referred to as the British Elite League or, for sponsorship reasons, the Viaplay Elite League, is an ice hockey league in the United Kingdom. Formed in 2003 following the demise of the Ice Hockey ...
. Formerly called the English National Ice Hockey League (ENIHL), it was renamed in 2012 to recognise the inclusion of several teams from
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
and
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
.
The English Ice Hockey Association announced a new structure of the men's senior league for the 2019/20 season, at a meeting of NIHL clubs in Warwickshire. A new ten-team division was approved to sit above the existing Division 1 in North and South, to be known as the National League.
In the inaugural 2019–2020 season the National League comprised
Basingstoke Bison
The Basingstoke Bison are an English Ice Hockey club from Basingstoke. They currently compete in the NIHL National League and have previously been members of the Ice Hockey Superleague and its successor the Elite Ice Hockey League.
History ...
,
Bracknell Bees
The Bees Ice Hockey Club are an ice hockey team from Slough, Berkshire, UK. They compete in the National Ice Hockey League (NIHL) National League, the second tier of English Ice Hockey.
History
Early years
The Bracknell Bees were formed in ...
,
Hull Pirates
The Hull Seahawks are an ice hockey team based in Kingston upon Hull and their home ice is the Hull Arena. They compete in the NIHL National Division.
Formation
The Hull Pirates were formed when the Hull Stingrays went into liquidation in J ...
,
Leeds Knights
The Leeds Knights are a professional ice hockey team based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team is a member of the National League and plays at Planet Ice Leeds.
History
The team was announced, along with the new National League, on 16 Mar ...
,
MK Lightning
The Milton Keynes Lightning are an ice hockey team founded in 2002 in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. The Lightning currently play in Britain's second-tier professional league, the National Ice Hockey League (NIHL), since the 2019–20 season. T ...
,
Peterborough Phantoms
The Peterborough Phantoms are a British ice hockey team that play at the Planet Ice Peterborough Arena, in Bretton, Peterborough. The Peterborough Phantoms ice hockey club was founded in 2002. It replaced the former city based team, the Pet ...
,
Romford Raiders
The Raiders are an ice hockey team based in Romford, participating in the National Division of the National Ice Hockey League (NIHL), the second tier of British ice hockey.
They were known as the Romford Raiders when they were based at the R ...
,
Sheffield Steeldogs
The Sheffield Steeldogs are a semi professional ice hockey team, based at the iceSheffield complex in Sheffield, England.
History
The club came into existence during the summer of 2010 as a replacement for the previous tenants of the iceSheffie ...
,
Swindon Wildcats
The Swindon Wildcats are a professional ice hockey team based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. They play in the National Ice Hockey League (NIHL). Since their inception, the Wildcats have played their home games at the 1600-capacity Link Centre ...
and
Telford Tigers
The Telford Tigers are a National Ice Hockey League (NIHL) ice hockey team that formed in 1985. After initially closing in 1999, a new team, under the name 'Telford Wild Foxes', was formed in 2001; and re-adopted the original name in 2005.
The t ...
. There is no promotion to or relegation from the National League.
Below the National League, the leagues are split into two regions, North and South, meaning teams do not have to travel long distances for away games. Each region has 2 divisions, with promotion and relegation between the divisions in each region.
History
The ENIHL was formed in 1996; following the dissolution of the
British Hockey League
The British Hockey League was the top-flight ice hockey league in the United Kingdom from 1980 until 1996 (with a short break between 1981 and 1982), when it was replaced by the Ice Hockey Superleague and the British National League. The league r ...
(BHL), and the creation of the
Ice Hockey Superleague
The British Ice Hockey Superleague (BISL, also known as the Sekonda Ice Hockey Superleague from 1998 to 1999 for sponsorship reasons) was a professional ice hockey league in the United Kingdom between 1996 and 2003. Devised in 1995, it replaced ...
and the
British National League (BNL) as the top two tiers of British hockey. The ENIHL served as the third tier of hockey; operating below the BNL.
Tiers of British ice hockey since 1995
Following its inaugural season, an upper tier within the ENIHL was founded, so as to serve as a league for the members of the BNL who could not afford to remain in that league due to the increased operating costs; but at the same time played ice hockey to a higher standard that of the other ENIHL teams. This division was originally known as the National Division, and during the 1997–98 season the teams in this division played dual schedules; a series of games solely amongst themselves, and another amongst all of the teams which fell under the jurisdiction of the ENIHL at this time.
Solihull Blaze won the league and play-off trophies of both formats during this inaugural season.
At the start of the 1998–99 season the divisions, whilst still both under the ENIHL umbrella, performed in their own separate competitions; and the national division adopted the name Premier Division, and later on became known as the Premier League. By the end of the season the league had established itself outside of the ENIHL as the
English Premier Ice Hockey League
The English Premier Ice Hockey League (EPIHL) was an ice hockey league of 10 teams, all of which were based in England. Headquartered in Blackpool, the EPIHL was one of two professional ice hockey leagues in the United Kingdom (the other being th ...
(EPIHL); reducing the ENIHL to the fourth level of Britain's ice hockey pyramid.
However, in 2005 the BNL disbanded; leaving the EPIHL to take its place as the second tier of the national game and, consequently, re-establishing the ENIHL as the third tier of British ice hockey. In April 2007, the EIHA lowered the upper age limit within the junior leagues, abolishing the under 19 age limit to become under 18. Due to the large gap from junior level to the
EPIHL, many teams were forced to enter a reserve team into the
ENIHL
The National Ice Hockey League (NIHL) is a set of professional ice hockey leagues administered by the English Ice Hockey Association. It is currently the second tier of British ice hockey, below the Elite Ice Hockey League. Formerly called the ...
. This increased the size of the league from 22 teams through to 30 teams for the 2007–08 season. Later in the 2007 off-season, the
EIHA suggested introducing an under 25 age limit across the league. However, this age limit was removed within weeks in favour of a drive towards developing players. The ENIHL was restructured for the 2008/2009 season into two regional divisions North and South, with two leagues in each regional division.
Following the 2012–13 the league was renamed the National Ice Hockey League, removing the word English due to non-English teams participating. In 2013, it was agreed at the
EIHA AGM to restructure the Northern league into two conferences; Moralee and Laidler. The split was done primarily on regions and neither conference was regarded as being higher than the other. However, at the following year's AGM, it was agreed to return to a tiered Division 1 and Division 2 format. However, the conference names remained in place with Division 1 taking the Moralee Conference title and Division 2 the Laidler Conference title.
In 2014, it was agreed at the
EIHA AGM to restructure the Southern Division 2 league to have Western and Eastern Conferences. Due to the odd-number of teams in the league, the Eastern Conference had six teams while the Western Conference had five teams. Both conferences were run completely separately and each winner was only regarded as being the conference winner, with no implication of one conference winner being regarded as the league winner. A two-round playoff format was introduced at the end of the season to determine a league-wide winner. The winner of the playoffs would then be the team promoted to Division 1. In 2017, the two conferences were reunited.
Players
The league itself is considered to be a development league, and as such the players are normally amateur. Many teams have affiliate teams in higher leagues. Other teams are aligned with junior ice hockey clubs, and exist to ensure that when players hit 18 there is still a possibility for them to play competitive hockey if they have not joined a professional team.
The system
National League
Division 1
Division 2
Season structure
As of the 2018–19 season, the divisions are the following:
North
Each team plays each of the other teams in their league a total of four times; twice home, twice away.
At the end of the regular season, the top 4 teams in the division take part in the Playoff weekend, which are one-off games, replacing the previous home/away format. There is not usually a third placed Playoff. Blackburn Hawks currently hold the record of most consecutive final appearances with four from 2011/12 to the present season, winning in 2012/13 and 2014/15.
The rules regarding promotion and relegation between the Moralee and Laidler regularly change.
There are occasional cup competitions, but the format changes in most seasons but usually takes part in a league format.
South
Each team plays each of the other teams in their league a total of four times; twice home, twice away.
Unlike the North, the South keep a two-legged home-and-away format throughout the playoffs. In Division 1, this is a three-rounded format, involving the teams who finished in the top 8 of the regular season. In Division 2, this is a two-rounded format, involving the teams who finished in the top 2 of their conference. In the semi-finals, the conference winners play the runners-up from the other conference with the final involving the winners of the two semi-finals.
Division 1 has a Cup competition involving six of the teams. These are initially split into two groups of three, with the top two from each group going on to a knock-out, two-legged semi-final and final.
Division 2 has a Cup competition involving eight teams. These are initially split into two groups of four, with each group containing two teams from each conference. The top two teams from each group go onto a single Cup Final Weekend held in a single venue, with semi-finals on the Saturday determining the two teams to play the final on the Sunday.
League champions
Rules
Follows
International Ice Hockey Federation
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 m ...
(IIHF) rules, as used by countries in all major European leagues. There are significant differences between the
National Hockey League rules
The National Hockey League rules are the rules governing the play of the National Hockey League (NHL), a professional ice hockey organization. Infractions of the rules, such as offside and icing, lead to a stoppage of play and subsequent to the ...
and
IIHF
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 m ...
rules, including rink dimension, netminder puck handling, and icing.
The ENIHL also operates under additional EIHA regulations.
Additional discipline rules are also enforced by the EIHA,
Disciplinary Document
, EIHA, Revised 7 June 2008 which include;
* Team fines of up to £5,000 for failure to complete a fixture
* A points system for misconduct and match penalties
* Player suspensions based upon accumulation of points
** 10 points - 2-game suspension
** 15 points - 3-game suspension
** 20 points - 4-game suspension
** 25 points - 5-game suspension
* Penalty Points for coach/managers and bench officials
* For every 20 penalty points accumulated against the team (players, coaches, managers and bench official) - £25 fine
* 50 team penalty points - £100 fine
* 75 team penalty points - £250 fine plus suspension
* 100 team penalty points - £250 plus the £250 suspended fine awarded at 75 points = £500 total fine
See also
* :Seasons in English ice hockey: This category contains links to annual club and league reviews.
References
{{British ice hockey
Organisations based in Lancashire
Sport in Blackpool
Second tier ice hockey leagues in Europe
Eng
1996 establishments in England
Sports leagues established in 1996
Professional ice hockey leagues in the United Kingdom