2000–01 ISL season

The 2000–01 Ice Hockey Superleague season was the fifth season of the Sekonda Ice Hockey Superleague (ISL).

Belfast Giants, a new team formed in Northern Ireland, were granted a franchise, although they did not take part in the Benson & Hedges Cup. The Newcastle franchise was sold to Harry Harkimo, co-owner of Jokerit who play in the Finnish SM-liiga, and their name was changed to the Newcastle Jesters (Jokerit being Finnish for Jester).

This season, the league awarded three points for a win, two points for an overtime win and one point for an overtime loss in all competitions except the Benson & Hedges Cup. Any game still tied after overtime was decided by a penalty shootout.

The Sheffield Steelers won a Grand Slam of all available competitions. However, the win was marred by the club being found guilty by the league for breaking the £450,000 wage cap[1] and going into liquidation at the end of the season.[2]

Benson & Hedges Cup

The 2000 Benson & Hedges Cup consisted of the teams from the ISL, minus the Belfast Giants, and the teams from the British National League (BNL). The ISL teams were split into two groups of four teams (groups A and B) and the BNL teams were split into two groups, one of four teams (group C) and one of five teams (group D). Each team played the other teams in the group once at home and away.

The group winners from the BNL groups entered the knock-out stage in a challenge round with the fourth placed teams from the ISL group stage. The winners of the challenge rounds entered the quarter finals with the top three teams from each ISL group.

All games after the group stages were home and away aggregate scores except for the challenge round and the final itself which were one-off games. The final was held at Sheffield Arena.

First round

Challenge round Quarter finals

Group A

Group A GP W T L GF GA Pts
Ayr Scottish Eagles 6 4 0 2 23 18 8
Manchester Storm 6 3 2 1 26 24 8
Cardiff Devils 6 1 3 2 23 25 5
Bracknell Bees 6 0 3 3 22 27 3

Group B

Group B GP W T L GF GA Pts
Sheffield Steelers 6 5 0 1 23 11 10
London Knights 6 3 0 3 13 11 6
Nottingham Panthers 6 3 0 3 11 17 6
Newcastle Jesters 6 1 0 5 13 21 2

Group C

Group C GP W T L GF GA Pts
Fife Flyers 6 4 1 1 32 17 9
Hull Thunder 6 4 0 2 29 20 8
Peterborough Pirates 6 2 1 3 24 27 5
Paisley Pirates 6 1 0 5 17 38 2

Group D

Group D GP W T L GF GA Pts
Guildford Flames 8 6 1 1 34 15 13
Basingstoke Bison 8 5 1 2 30 21 11
Coventry Blaze 8 4 2 2 35 26 10
Slough Jets 8 1 2 5 23 44 4
Milton Keynes Kings 8 1 0 7 28 44 2

Challenge round

Winner Group C (Fife) vs 4th place Group B (Newcastle)

Winner Group D (Guildford) vs 4th place Group A (Bracknell)

Finals

Quarter finals

3rd place Group B (Nottingham) vs 2nd place Group A (Manchester)

Winner challenge game 2 (Bracknell) vs Winner Group B (Sheffield)

3rd place Group A (Cardiff) vs 2nd place Group B (London)

Winner challenge game 1 (Newcastle) vs Winner Group A (Ayr)

Semi finals

Winner semi final 2 (Sheffield) vs Winner semi final 1 (Nottingham)

Winner semi final 4 (Newcastle) vs Winner semi final 3 (London)

Final

The final took place at Sheffield Arena between Sheffield Steelers and Newcastle Jesters.

Challenge Cup

All nine teams in the league competed in the Challenge Cup. The first round was the first home and away meeting of each team in the league with the points counting towards both the Challenge Cup table and the league table. The top four teams progressed to the semi finals. The semi finals were home and away games with the winner on aggregate progressing to the one off final game.

Sheffield Steelers won the competition for the third time in a row.

First round

Challenge Cup GP W OTW OTL L GF GA Pts
Belfast Giants 16 9 1 2 4 58 49 31
London Knights 16 8 2 2 4 52 39 30
Ayr Scottish Eagles 16 8 2 0 6 63 51 28
Sheffield Steelers 16 7 3 1 5 45 39 28
Bracknell Bees 16 6 3 2 5 64 50 26
Manchester Storm 16 6 2 1 7 59 71 23
Newcastle Jesters 16 4 2 5 5 48 49 21
Cardiff Devils 16 5 1 3 7 45 51 20
Nottingham Panthers 16 0 3 3 10 33 68 9

Semi finals

1st place (Belfast) vs 4th place (Sheffield)

3rd place (Ayr) vs 2nd place (London)

Final

Winner semi final 1 vs Winner semi final 2

League

Each team played three home games and three away games against each of their opponents. The top eight teams in the league were entered into the playoffs.

Superleague GP W OTW OTL L GF GA Pts
Sheffield Steelers 48 30 5 4 9 162 115 104
Cardiff Devils 48 24 5 3 16 167 130 85
Bracknell Bees 48 19 6 6 17 173 161 75
London Knights 48 18 7 6 17 143 130 74
Ayr Scottish Eagles 48 21 4 1 22 161 158 72
Belfast Giants 48 17 6 9 16 158 159 72
Manchester Storm 48 15 6 3 24 148 186 60
Nottingham Panthers 48 10 8 7 23 126 167 53
Newcastle Jesters 48 12 3 11 22 126 158 53

Playoffs

The top eight teams in the league took part in the playoffs. Group A consisted of Belfast, London, Nottingham and Sheffield while Group B consisted of Ayr, Bracknell, Cardiff and Manchester. The top two teams from each playoff group qualified for the finals weekend. The third place playoff was dropped for this season.

Group A

Group A GP W OTW OTL L GF GA Pts
London Knights 6 4 0 0 2 17 11 12
Sheffield Steelers 6 4 0 0 2 16 18 12
Belfast Giants 6 3 0 0 3 17 17 9
Nottingham Panthers 6 1 0 0 5 13 17 3

Group B

Group B GP W OTW OTL L GF GA Pts
Bracknell Bees 6 3 1 0 2 20 17 11
Ayr Scottish Eagles 6 2 1 1 2 23 19 9
Cardiff Devils 6 2 1 1 2 23 24 9
Manchester Storm 6 1 1 2 2 20 26 7

Semi Finals

Winner Group A vs 2nd place Group B

Winner Group B vs 2nd place Group A

Final

Winner semi final 1 vs Winner semi final 2

Awards

All Star teams

First Team Position Second Team
Trevor Robins, London Knights G Mike Torchia, Sheffield Steelers
Shayne McCosh, Sheffield Steelers D Neal Martin, London Knights
Jim Paek, Nottingham Panthers D Adam Smith, Sheffield Steelers
David Longstaff, Sheffield Steelers F Greg Bullock, Manchester Storm
P. C. Drouin, Nottingham Panthers F Steve Thornton, Cardiff Devils
Tony Hand, Ayr Scottish Eagles F Kory Karlander, Belfast Giants

Scoring leaders

The scoring leaders are taken from all league games.

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Steelers facing title axe". BBC Sports. 2001-05-09. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  2. ↑ "Uncertain future for Steelers". The Independent. 27 April 2001. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
Preceded by
1999–00 ISL season		 ISL seasons Succeeded by
2001–02 ISL season
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