>A year or so ago a local high school team went to europe to play
>several games, and encountered the penalty-shot playoff, much to
>their dismay.  The explanation that they recieved was that ice time
>is at such a premium on most european rinks that the only alternatives
>are a very fast tie-breaker, or letting the ties stand.  From what I
>heard, many of the rinks are busy 24 hours per day, and it is not
>uncommon to only resurface the ice between games.
 
  Not exactly, Tom. First, it is extremely difficult, or rather impossible,
to generalize all European hockey. We're talking some 30 different nations
which play hockey here. Everywhere things are done a little differently.
In the Norwegian league, where I play, ties are tried settled through a
5 min. sudden death. If the result is still a tie after this, then that's
the final result. After all, 10-20 minutes OT is a bit too much, both
for the spectators and not to forget, the players. Most playoffs in Europe
are settled through a 5 or 7 games series, as also in Norway.
 
  The reason is not overloaded rinks. There might be a shortage some
places, but I never heard of a rink which was busy for 24 hrs a day.
Who wants to play hockey at 4 am ?  *:-) And; not resurfacing the ice
between periods ? They do that in every game here in Scandinavia.
Places like the East European countries have a shortage of rinks,
that's true. But then again, e.g. Sweden, with it's 8 million citizens,
have some 250 rinks. In Norway ( 3.8 million cit. ) we built some 15 new
rinks in 2 years a couple of years ago. Maybe the tournament this high
school team played was too big for all games to be settled in a regular
manner, maybe they played some special game format etc.
 
  Also, I would just like to make a point of that Europe is not a nation or a
union, just a name for a continent and a part of the world. ( Imagine someone
speaking of the entire *American* continent in general terms...  *:-)
 
  BTW, Tom, where did that high school team go ? Just curious...
 
 
  *** Petter.
 
 
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::::::...Petter Lande, Computer Science, University of Oslo, Norway....::::::::
::::::...Bjerregaards gt. 16, 0172 Oslo 1, Norway. Phone : 02-608396...::::::::
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      " Talk sense to a fool, and he calls you foolish "     - Euripides
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