April 3, 2004

PRINCETON, N.J. – The ECHL has announced that teams must submit their 20-man and injured reserve rosters for the 2004 Kelly Cup Playoffs by 3 p.m. ET on Monday, April 5. Only the players named on the playoff roster will be eligible to play in the postseason.

For games tied at the end of regulation, there will be an 18-minute intermission followed by a 20-minute sudden-death overtime period. All overtime periods in the playoffs are played using a five-on-five format. The teams will continue to play overtime periods until there is a winner.

In order to be eligible for a team’s playoff roster, professional players must have played at least one shift in five ECHL regular season games. Professional players are defined as those players who have played in a professional league during the 2003-04 season and retired professional players that have been playing in senior, semipro or other similar non-amateur league hockey.

Players who finish the regular season on injured reserve will be eligible to play in the playoffs provided that all playoff eligibility requirements are met and the player’s full injured reserve time has been completed. When a player’s injured reserve time has been completed, the player may be activated and placed on the 20-man active roster.

If a player is injured during the playoffs, he may be placed on injured reserve and replaced on the active roster with either a player whose injured reserve time has been completed or by a player who is returning from a call-up to either the American Hockey League or the National Hockey League.

In order for players that are currently on call-up to the AHL or the NHL to be eligible for the Kelly Cup Playoffs, a team must include them on the 20-man active playoff roster. Once the playoffs begin, a player on a call-up may be moved to inactive status and replaced with either a player whose injured reserve time has been completed. A player on a team’s active roster who is called up to either the AHL or the NHL during the playoffs may be moved to inactive status and replaced with a player whose injured reserve time has been completed or by a player who is returning from a call-up to either the American Hockey League or the National Hockey League.

A team must have five active skaters either injured or on call-up before it can add a replacement player to its playoff roster. If a team has less than 20 players designated on its playoff roster, it still must lose five of those designated players to either injury or call-up before it will be allowed to add a replacement player. Only players from junior, college, senior league or other comparable non-professional leagues, as determined by the ECHL, may be used as a replacement skater. The player must be approved by the ECHL before he is allowed to play in a game. When the player that is injured or on call-up returns to the team, the replacement player must be dropped immediately.

If a team loses a goaltender during the playoffs to injury or a call-up, the team will be allowed to add an emergency backup goaltender. Only players from junior, college, senior league or other comparable non-professional leagues, as determined by the ECHL, may be used as an emergency backup goaltender. A goaltender that served as an emergency backup in the ECHL during the regular season may also be used, provided that he was only on a team’s roster as an emergency backup goaltender. A team may use an emergency backup goaltender at any time.

~*Jazzy*~