The Ontario Minor Hockey Association is launching what it calls the biggest hockey championships in its history.
OMHA Championship Weekends will see over 375 teams will play in more than 850 games, with 41 champions will be crowned as part of the new OMHA Championships.
Derek Polowyk, Director of Business Development and Communications for OMHA, says essentially they're hosting 41 OMHA championships spread across three weekend, in five locations - Barrie, Kingston, Oakville, Whitby and Windsor.
"From ages groups U-10 to U-21, all age groups, all divisions, all categories across the province on March 25-27, April 1-3 and April 8-10," he says.
Polowyk says the big change is that there will be meaningful hockey being played until March 1, unlike the current playoff format.
"If you were unfortunate to lose in the first round, it could be Feb. 7 and you could no longer be playing hockey," he says, "Obviously being a winter sport and looking outside when it's cold and snowing, it would be unfortunate not to be playing hockey when it's February."
Polowyk says the month of March will be exciting in a different way for all of the leagues across the province.
"All of those individual league championships, they'll now really active as qualifier championships," he says. "Kind of regional events in which communities can go out and support their local teams, cheer them on to hopefully qualify to attend one of these weekend events that we are now hosting as the OMHA Championships."
The OMHA says this new playoff format has been designed with players, coaches and parents in mind. It not only extends the length of playing meaningful hockey, it minimizes travel for hockey families and aligns with the Player Pathway's optimal season structure. It removes the elimination-style series used in the past, and keeps more teams playing during the year for a longer period of time.
With files from Rob Hindi