CHL announces modification to the Memorial Cup point system
TUESDAY, MAY 9, 2023 — The Canadian Hockey League (CHL) is announcing a modification to the point system for the 2023 Memorial Cup presented by Kia, which is scheduled from May 25 – June 4 in Kamloops, British Columbia. Specifically, the 103rd edition of this prestigious tournament will revert back to a point system where two points are awarded to the winning team in each round-robin game of the Memorial Cup, regardless of whether the team wins in regulation time or overtime, while the losing team will not receive a point in regulation or overtime.
This is a change from last year’s Memorial Cup in Saint John, New Brunswick, which incorporated for the first time a point system that saw teams receive three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime win, and one point for an overtime loss.
Remaining in place from last year, however, will be the new overtime rules that were implemented for round-robin games at the Memorial Cup. Overtime in the round-robin will continue to be played in a 3-on-3 format in 20-minute periods until a winner is decided. The intermissions between the third period and overtime and each additional overtime period are 15 minutes. There are no TV timeouts during overtime although a quick scrape in front of the nets and benches will be done at the first stoppage after the 10-minute mark should the overtime continue.
It is worth noting that these overtime rules differentiate slightly from the tie-breaker, semi-final and championship games of the Memorial Cup, where overtime is played in a 5-on-5 format in 20-minute periods until a winner is decided.
The first game of the 2023 Memorial Cup is set for Friday, May 26 at 9:00 p.m. EST / 6:00 p.m. PST between host Kamloops Blazers and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) champion. The 2023 Memorial Cup has a very limited quantity of ticket packages remaining on Ticketmaster. A full schedule of games for this year’s CHL championship can be found here.
Viewers can also catch all the action from this year’s Memorial Cup on TSN and RDS in Canada, along with NHL Network in the United States, while fans outside of North America can watch on CHL TV.