Ice Hockey Club Tournament Software
Eight teams, two rinks, one weekend: groups on Saturday, semi-finals and medals on Sunday
Eight teams fit into one weekend on two rinks: two groups of four on Saturday, then semi-finals, a third-place game and a final on Sunday, 16 games in all. With a 90-minute slot that includes ice resurfacing, the group stage runs from 08:00 to about 17:00 and Sunday ends around 12:30. Under the IIHF Event Code a regulation win is worth 3 points, an overtime win 2 and an overtime loss 1. A level knockout game goes to overtime and a shootout.
The weekend on two rinks
Friday evening: team managers send their squad lists. IIHF Rule 5.1 allows 22 players per team, no more than 20 skaters and 2 goalkeepers.
Saturday 08:00: the first group slot, one game on each rink. Five more slots follow at 09:30, 11:00, 12:30, 14:00 and 15:30.
Saturday, about 17:00: the last group game ends. Twelve games are done, both tables are final, and the coaches know Sunday's pairings.
Sunday 09:00: both semi-finals at once. The winner of group A meets the runner-up of group B, and the winner of B meets the runner-up of A.
Sunday 11:00: final on rink 1, third-place game on rink 2. The extra half hour after the semi-finals' 90-minute slot leaves room for overtime and a shootout.
About 12:30: medals. The full bracket is already on the public event page.
Each 90-minute slot includes the ice resurfacing. This plan uses three 15-minute periods of stop time instead of the three 20-minute periods in IIHF Rule 77.1, and intermissions shorter than the 15 minutes in Rule 77.2. Time one game on your own rink before you fix the slot. With the clock stopping on every whistle, a game takes much longer than its periods add up to.
16 games, 3-2-1-0, and how overtime reorders a group
A group of four plays 4 × 3 / 2 = 6 games, so two groups play 12. Two semi-finals, the third-place game and the final bring the total to 16. Every team plays three games on Saturday, and the semi-finalists play five over the weekend.
Article 218 of the IIHF World Championship Event Code (2027 edition, in force from 1 July 2026) has no draws in the table. A regulation win earns 3 points and a regulation loss 0. A game level after 60 minutes gives each team 1 point, and the team that wins the overtime or the shootout gets 1 more. Article 219 separates teams on equal points. For two teams, their game against each other decides. For three or more, it is points, then goal difference, then goals scored in the games among them.
An example group. A beats B 2-1 in overtime and C 3-2 in regulation, but loses 1-2 to D. B beats D 2-1 in overtime and C 3-2. C beats D 4-1. IIHF points: B 6, A 5, D 4, C 3. Count every win as 3 points instead and A and B both have 6, with A ahead on their head-to-head game, while C passes D thanks to the 4-1. Two overtime goals change all four places.
Put the table rules in the invitation before the first face-off. A coach whose team lost twice in overtime will do the sums.
Overtime, shootouts and penalties on the scoreboard
In a group game IIHF Rule 84.1 adds up to 5 minutes of sudden-death overtime with three skaters and a goalkeeper per team. If nobody scores, a shootout follows: five different shooters per team, then one shooter each until one side leads (Rule 84.4). Only the deciding goal is added to the final score. Play-off games and the bronze medal game get up to 10 minutes of overtime (84.5), and the gold medal game plays further sudden-death overtime periods, 3 on 3 after a 15-minute intermission each, until someone scores (84.6). On a club weekend with booked ice time, pick one rule that fits the slot and write it into the invitation.
The ice hockey scoreboard counts three periods down, then a 5-minute overtime, then opens the shootout panel. There each team has a scored and a missed button. The board counts the attempts and shows when the series is decided, after five shooters or in sudden death, and the operator ends the game. With Extra time if drawn switched off in the format settings, a level game goes from the third period straight to the shootout.
Penalties are entered as minor (2:00), double minor (2+2), major (5:00) or misconduct (10:00), and each one counts down on the screen. A power-play goal ends the minor with the least time left, while a major runs its full five minutes (Rules 16.2 and 20.2). A misconduct does not leave the team short-handed (22.3). When two players of a team are already in the penalty box, a third penalty is delayed until one of them returns, so the team never drops below three skaters (Rule 26.1). The ice hockey penalties guide covers the calls behind them.
Setting the weekend up in JudgeMate
Start from ice hockey in the create menu. Ice hockey runs as a club tournament: each side of a game is a team entered by name, and players need no accounts.
- Add a category in the Groups + knockout format with two groups, two teams through from each, and the Third-place match switched on.
- Under Who enters the teams, pick I enter them myself and type the eight club names, or A team manager enters the team, where one person per club registers the team with its squad and you approve the entry. A squad holds 22 players by default and up to 30.
- Leave Standings rules on IIHF (Event Code, 218–219). A new ice hockey draw starts with it. Custom points keeps a fixed win, draw and loss scale, 3-1-0 by default, where an overtime win counts like any other win.
- Set Period length (min) to 15 and Number of periods to 3 for the whole draw. A scoreboard started from a game takes that format.
- In Rinks & schedule, press Add rink twice. Set Start time to Saturday 08:00, Slot length to 90 and Team rest to 60. Leave Turnaround at 0: start times snap to the slot grid, so a 75-minute slot with 15 minutes of turnaround starts the next game after 150 minutes, not 90. Then run Auto-schedule before the first result goes in.
- Auto-schedule places every game in one run from the start time and knows nothing about the night in between, so the knockout games land on Saturday too. Open each of the four and move its date and time to Sunday.
- Print the match slips and the bracket as PDF for the scorekeepers' bench.
On the day, start a scoreboard from each game. The Referee QR links card shows a code for that game, and whoever scans it runs its scoreboard. After the game, Confirm from boards moves the score into the table and the bracket. A group game won in overtime on the scoreboard gives 2 points to the winner and 1 to the loser. If the head-to-head steps still leave teams level, the table flags the tie and you set the order. Venue TV shows on a screen in the rink lobby what is on each ice surface now and what comes next.
What the organizer still handles
- Shootouts in the group stage. A group game in the table ends with a winner or as a draw. A group game still level after overtime counts as a draw, 1 point each, even if the scoreboard ran a shootout. If you want the IIHF split of 2 and 1 for shootouts, JudgeMate will not produce it, so say in the invitation that a group game level after overtime stays a draw.
- Overtime only from the scoreboard. The table knows a game went to overtime only when it was played on a scoreboard. A score typed in by hand, by you or by a team, counts as a regulation result: 3 points and 0.
- Overtime length. The scoreboard's overtime lasts 5 minutes. The 10 minutes of Rule 84.5 and the open-ended periods of a gold medal game cannot be set.
- Assists. The scoreboard records the scorer and one assist per goal. IIHF rules allow two.
- Official game sheet. Match slips and the bracket print as PDF. They do not replace the official game sheet a federation league requires.
- Who enters results. By default you do, by hand or from the scoreboard. With Players report results switched on, a player with an account on the squad reports a group game and the other team confirms it. Semi-finals, the third-place game and the final are confirmed by you; a referee can keep the score on the board from the QR code.
- Walkovers. A team that does not turn up loses 0-5 by default. You can change that score in the draw settings.
- Money and messages. Entry fees can be marked as paid or waived next to each team. Nothing is collected online, and there are no email or SMS reminders.
The rules the scoreboard follows are in how ice hockey scoring works.
Set up your event
Free for organizers. No athlete cap. No commission on registrations. See ice hockey features · Organizer guide