Get in quick. Tickets for the New Zealand Ice Hockey League first semifinals series, between Queenstown’s SkyCity Stampede and the Canterbury Red Devils, being played at the Queenstown Ice Arena next Friday and Saturday officially went on sale yesterday, via store.icehockeynz.co.nz/game-tickets. In the playoffs, there’ll be three 20-minute regulation periods with no overtime in game one with the aggregate score carrying over in to game two — as coach Cam Frear explains it, “the end of game one is like halftime in a normal game”. Then, next Saturday, there’ll be another three 20-minute regulation periods, then, if required, 20 minutes’ overtime and, if required, a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner. The second semifinals series is being played at the same time between Dunedin Thunder and the West Auckland Admirals, who Stampede beat 8-1, 4-3 in Queenstown last weekend, in Dunedin.
