Czechoslovak Hockey League (WFAC)

The Czechoslovak Hockey League (Czech and Slovak: Československá hokejová liga, CSHL) is the highest-level ice hockey league in Czechoslovakia.The league features 14 teams. It is considered as the sixth best ice hockey league in the world.

Season structure
The CSHL season is divided into a regular season, lasting from mid September to the first week of March, and a postseason, consisting of the Czechoslovak Championship playoffs (also known as the Masaryk Cup), and qualification for the league in the following season. During the regular season, clubs play each other in a predefined schedule. The Masaryk Cup, which is contested in March and April, is an elimination tournament where two clubs play each other in a best-of-seven series in order to advance to the next round. The final remaining team is crowned the Czechoslovak champion. Teams not qualified for the playoffs must compete with the best teams from the second league level — the Czech and Slovak 1st Divisions — for the right to play in next season's CSHL.

Regular season
Since the 1993-94 season, the league is divided into a Czech and a Slovak conference (the Hlinka and Dzurilla Conferences, respectively), each including 12 teams. In this season, each team played every other team once at home and once on the road, giving a total of 46 games (23 at home, 23 on the road), plus 4 additional games (2 at home, 2 on the road) played by each team against rival clubs from its own conference. Thus, each team played a total of 50 games in the regular season. The eight top-ranked teams in each conference receive playoff berths, teams ranked 9th and 10th are eliminated, while the two lowest ranked teams (11th and 12th) after the regular season play in a qualification tournament

Points are awarded for each game, where three points are awarded for a win in regulation time, two points for win in overtime or a shootout and one point for a loss in overtime or a shootout. No points are awarded for a loss in regulation time. Teams are ranked by total points; if two or more teams have an equal number of points, they are separated using head to head records, then goal difference head to head and goals scored head to head. If two or more teams are still ranked equally, goal difference and goals scored in all 45 games are used to break the tie. At the end of the regular season, the team that finishes with the most points is crowned league champion.

Playoffs
The Masaryk Cup, or playoffs, is contested by the eight best teams of each conference in the league following the conclusion of the regular season, with the team seeding being based on their regular season record. Within each national conference quarterfinals, semifinals and finals are played before the conference winners play against each other for the Masaryk Cup. Each round is played as a best-of-seven series. In each round the higher-ranked team is said to be the team with the home ice advantage. Four of the seven games are played at this team's home venue—the first and third, and, when necessary, the fifth and seventh games—with the other games played at the lower-ranked team's home venue. In the finals, the team with the most points during the regular season is given home-ice advantage.[4]

Qualification
The two lowest ranked teams from each conference after the regular season are in danger of being relegated and will have to play in two qualification tournaments along with the two highest ranked teams from the First Czech and First Slovak Leagues. In each group, a total of 12 matches (twice home and twice away with every team in group) are played, with the 1st and 2nd placed teams of that group being qualified to play in the CSHL the following season while the 3rd and 4th plays in the Czech and the Slovak First Leagues.