The NCAA Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey Rules Committee recommendation to the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel to go to four-on-four overtime in regular-season games beginning this season may not be approved when it goes to the panel on July 20, according to Hockey East Commissioner and committee member Joe Bertagna.
However, Bertagna said cases where recommendations have been rescinded are extremely rare.
He said the committee once voted to change the icing rules pertaining to power plays. Teams that were shorthanded weren’t going to be allowed to ice the puck. The faceoff would come back into their defensive zone if they did.
“But the response was so overwhelmingly negative during the comment period that it was rescinded,” said Bertagna.
Shorthanded teams can ice it without having to endure a defensive zone faceoff.
The comment period is when coaches and hockey people weigh in on the recommendations, including the four-on-four overtime.
Bertagna said that period is about to start and usually lasts three weeks.
The committee also approved the option for conferences to implement a five-minute, three-on-three overtime if neither team scores during the four-on-four, before finally going to a shootout.
And the committee indicated that adjustments would be made to the Rating Percentage Index to award some credit to a team that loses in the four-on-four overtime.
The RPI ranks teams based on wins and losses and strength of schedule.
The National Hockey League formerly used four-on-four in overtime before going to a shootout but switched to three-on-three last season.
Bertagna said a poll taken at the annual American Hockey Coaches Association convention in Florida at the end of April indicated that the majority of Division I coaches were against the four-on-four overtime but the Division III coaches were “50-50.”
“I’m not in favor of it,” said UMaine coach Red Gendron. “I want to know what the purpose is. If you’re going to change the game, you have to have compelling evidence that it’s going to make the game better.”
Providence College coach and former UMaine assistant Nate Leaman said, “I’m not completely opposed to four-on-four, but I don’t have a clear understanding of what effect it will have on the RPI and on our league standings. And I’m not sure what the power-play situation would be. Would it be five-on-four or four-on-three?”
Bertagna said he expects the proposal to be more clearly defined soon.
Boston College coach Jerry York said he thinks four-on-four overtime is exciting.
The reason for the proposal is twofold, according to Bertagna.
They want to boost the number of goals scored and reduce the number of ties.
Thirty-two of the 60 Division I teams had at least five ties this past season. Eleven had seven or more.
“And goal scoring has been going down for a decade. It has been a straight line down, not up and down,” said Bertagna. “The decisions that have been made in recent years have favored offense like not allowing hand passes in the defensive zone.”
In a College Hockey News story, it was pointed out that goal scoring has dipped, but not significantly. It has dropped from 2.92 goals per game per team in 2005-06 to 2.79 this past season.
That was up over the 2.71 in 2014-15.
The Hockey East women went to four-on-four overtime for the first time last season, the only league to do so, and UMaine coach Richard Reichenbach thought it worked well.
“It was designed to create more offense, and it did that. It opened things up a lot. It generated a lot of dramatics. The fans and the players enjoyed it,” said Reichenbach, who also noted that it resulted in fewer ties.
“It actually makes more sense for the men to do it because some of them are going on to the NHL, and this will prepare them for it,” said Reichenbach.