The Mayhem sledge team have qualified for the end of season play offs without having to strike a puck in anger, after other results at the weekend worked in their favour.
With league champions Sheffield Steelkings beating struggling Peterborough
Phantoms 11-0 in Sheffield on Saturday, it means that the league’s basement team
are no longer able to accrue enough points from their remaining games to overtake
the Mayhem, who are now guaranteed of finishing at least fourth.
Sheffield have already qualified for the play offs as champions
and Cardiff Huskies – who are second in the table with one game left to play - will
join them, along now with the Mayhem.
The fourth - and final - play off spot will probably be decided
this coming weekend when the Sheffield Steelkings B team (the Stings) play
their last two games of the regular season – away at Cardiff on Saturday and at
home to Peterborough on Sunday.
A single point from one of those two games would be enough to
clinch 4th place in the league table for the Stings and mean that they would
beat Peterborough for the final play off spot.
Aside from Sheffield’s dominance, it has been quite an
unpredictable season overall with most teams taking points off each other.
Depending on their result away at Peterborough and the other
teams’ results in the other two games in the meantime, the Mayhem could still
finish as high as second in the final league table – or as low as fourth.
The top four teams in the final table qualify for the end of
season play offs, which are to be played at the Lee Valley Ice Centre in East
London over the weekend of 12th and 13th September.
The final league placings are important as they decide the
match-ups for the two semi finals and the higher finishing teams get a
theoretically easier draw by being paired against the lower sides, with 1st
playing 4th and 2nd playing 3rd.
The Mayhem play their last game of the regular season away to Peterborough
Phantoms on Sunday 30th August.
Manchester Mayhem official website: www.manchestermayhem.co.uk
For more information about the British Para Ice Hockey League, check out the official website at www.paraicehockey.co.uk
