The Pacific 8 Intercollegiate Hockey Conference (PAC-8) is a collegiate men's ice hockey conference that competes in Division II of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. The PAC-8 is made up of non-varsity ice hockey teams from most of the universities of the NCAA's Pac-12 Conference.
Regular Season Format
According to the PAC-8 Charter, membership is limited only to sanctioned teams from universities that are also members of the Pac-12. By rule, each season starts on October 1 of each year.
Along with the required conference schedule, teams schedule several non-conference games against ACHA opponents for regional and national ranking consideration.
In game play, the ACHA follows the NCAA Rulebook for ice hockey. For interconference games, the PAC-8 mostly follows the same rules for game times and structure. A notable difference is in cases of a tie game after regulation and a 5-minute sudden-death overtime period, the PAC-8 uses a five-man shootout to determine the winner. This differs with the NHL, which uses a three-man shootout. This shootout is also carried into conference playoff games (both the NHL and NCAA use additional sudden-death overtime periods to determine the winner). For the 2013-2014 season, a small change was introduced to allow for an extended 10-minute overtime period for only the championship game of the conference tournament, after which the winner would be determined by a five-man shootout.
Members
Of the remaining Pac-12 universities:
- Arizona competes in Division 1 of the ACHA in the Western Collegiate Hockey League but is a founding member of the Pac 8.
- Arizona State has another team in the ACHA as well that competes in Division 1 in the WCHL.
- Colorado also competes in Division 1 in the WCHL.
- Stanford competes in Division 2 in the PCHA but is a former member of the Pac 8.
- Oregon State does not have a team.
- Utah competes in Division 1 as an independent team but is a former member of the Pac 8.
Tournament Weekend
The PAC-8 Championship Tournament is typically held the weekend before Presidents Day in February. The weekend also consists of the annual league meeting and the end of season awards banquet.
Past Champions
Totals
See also
- American Collegiate Hockey Association
- List of ice hockey leagues
External links
- PAC-8 web site
- Arizona State Sun Devils
- California Golden Bears
- Oregon Ducks
- UCLA Bruins
- USC Trojans
- Washington Huskies
- Washington State Cougars
