How finals places are decided when teams are level on points

Six teams make the finals. When two teams finish the regular season on the same number of points, the AIHL works down a published list of tie-breakers until one of them separates the teams.

A cancelled game is removed from both sides of the sum. The game does not count, and neither does any point awarded for it. A team that played fewer games can finish above a team on the same points, because it earned those points from fewer chances.

How points work

Every result (except a regulation-time loss) is worth points, and the way the game finishes determines how many the team receives.

Since teams can earn points for a loss in overtime or shootout, it makes forecasting table positions more challenging.

In Season view, the points (PTS) you see are the league's official numbers. The record next to them is four numbers, W-L-OTW-OTL - wins, losses, overtime/shootout wins, and overtime/shootout losses, each counted separately - shown the same way whether you're looking at the main standings table or the team cards on the Teams section. Last 10 and Last 5 work the same way, but only count games in that window. So they show recent form, not the whole season.

Form (the little result chips)

A quick strip of a team's last few results, most recent on the right. W is a win, L is a loss, and O / S mean it was decided in overtime or a shootout. Hover any chip to see the actual score.

Elo rating

A single number that answers "how good is this team right now." Every team starts at 1500. It moves up after wins and down after losses, by more after a big win or a win over a strong opponent, and by less after a close game or a weak opponent. Unlike the ladder, it reacts right away to who a team has actually been beating. That's why this site's win probabilities and finals predictions are built from it.

Finals status tags

Clinched means a top-6 finish is locked in. Nothing that happens for the rest of the season can change that. Eliminated means the opposite. It's mathematically impossible to catch up, even by winning every game left. Everything in between is technically still alive, but this site splits it further. In the hunt means a realistic shot, based on simulating the rest of the season thousands of times. Still a chance means it's only mathematically alive if almost everything breaks that team's way. It's worth knowing about, but not worth getting your hopes up over.

Team stat columns

SF% (Shots-For percentage) is the share of total shots on goal a team takes in its games. Above 50% means they're out-shooting opponents on average, a decent sign of which team is controlling more of the play. PP% is how often a team scores on the power play, when they have a man advantage after the other team takes a penalty. PK% is the opposite. It's how often a team successfully defends against the other team's power play. PIM/G is penalty minutes per game, a rough measure of how often a team ends up in the penalty box.

Player stat columns

G / A / PTS are goals, assists, and points (goals plus assists). This is the standard scoring line. Form is a tiny trend line of that player's points over their recent games. Streak flags a hot run, meaning consecutive games with at least a point. Once that stops for three games straight, it flags a goal drought instead. Pace compares a player's last 5 games' scoring rate to their season average, and shows an arrow when that pace has shifted meaningfully one way or the other. Lg Rank is that player's rank among every skater in the league by season points, not just their own team.