AHL Finals Week Information

The WA Thundersticks are preparing for a title challenge at next week’s AHL Finals Week, with the team currently sitting second on the ladder.

The 2011 men’s tournament has been played over two weekends of round matches in various locations, with all teams now coming together in one location to compete in Finals Week. There has been a significant gap between the end of the second weekend of play and the Finals Week due to international commitments by the Kookaburras.

Finals Week brings all of the teams together in one location, with this year’s Finals Week being played in Sydney from August 6-13. The first two days of this week will complete the rounds component of the tournament, with each team having then played each other once.

After the first two days of Finals Week the teams will be divided into two pools according to their ranking on the overall points table. Pool A will consist of teams ranked – 1,4,5 & 8, whilst Pool B will consist of teams ranked – 2,3,6 & 7.

The teams in each pool will then play each other once more with the top team in each pool at the end of the three games playing off for the Gold and Silver medals and the second team in each pool playing off for Bronze. The third team in each pool will play off for 5th v 6th place and the fourth team in each pool will play off for 7th and 8th place.

The points formula consists of three points for a win, one point for a draw, with no points for a loss. If a team wins a game by three or more goals in the round matches, including the first two days of Finals Week, they will receive an additional one bonus point onto the points table.

-Hockey Australia