Clippers and CJHL reveal unique playoff format for inaugural WCC

Press Release

The British Columbia Hockey League and the Nanaimo Clippers are pleased to announce the schedule for the Western Canada Cup (WCC) being held at Frank Crane Arena in Nanaimo from April 26 to May 5, 2013.

With two teams from the WCC qualifying for the 2013 RBC Cup, an anticlimactic final – which would result from a traditional round-robin and playoff-style tournament – was avoided due to the unique format created by Clippers gameday operations manager Kyle Anderson through working with Clippers head coach Mike Vandekamp.

After researching dozens of past Junior A tournament formats, Anderson made a schedule that is fair for all five teams and ensures there is something on the line in each of the final three games of the event.
“I looked back on some past RBC Cups and there was always one team that had to play three days in a row and it was always the team that had the first day off,” noted Anderson. “We found a way to eliminate the chance of any team playing three days in a row by selectively scheduling those two dates where only one game is played.”

Also helping with the competitive balance of the WCC is that the first- and second-place teams after the round robin will then have to be defeated twice in the playoff round to be eliminated.

“In past RBC tournaments with #1 versus #4 and #2 versus #3, only 60 per cent of the time did the top-two teams out of the round robin actually face each other in the final,” said Anderson. “We felt it wasn’t fair, since we’re sending two teams, that a team could win less games and still go to the RBC Cup.”

HERE IS THE WCC PLAYOFF BRACKET

The champion of the inaugural WCC will be determined in the #1 versus #2 game on Saturday, May 4th. The other game on Saturday will see the #3 and #4 placed teams in the tournament face-off. This game will have two highly motivated teams as the winner will face the loser of the #1 versus #2 game on Sunday, May 5th for the second berth to the RBC.

“We’ve created 13 meaningful games and we have three Game 7-type games in two days,” said Anderson. “The other bonus is the WCC winner has an extra day of rest before the RBC Cup.

“We look for this format to be the template for the WCC moving forward.”

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)