Hocktoberfest, the Elite Ice Hockey League's answer to 20/20 cricket, will return for a second year with a new format after a successful launch last year and the Hull Stingrays will once again participate in the one-day tournament at Sheffield Arena.
Last season the Rays were comprehensively beaten 5-1 at the quarter final stage of the inaugural tournament by eventual champions the Sheffield Steelers in a straight knockout competition which saw all eight EIHL sides compete.
However, this year just six sides will ice in the tournament on the Monday of the August Bank holiday with Dundee, Braehead, Edinburgh and Newcastle all opting to assemble their squad at a date after the competition.
Therefore, the Stingrays will competing with the leagues five title contenders, Belfast, Cardiff, Coventry, Nottingham and Sheffield, for the crown which the Steelers won with a 3-2 victory over Coventry last October.
This year, the six sides will be split into two groups with each side facing the other two in the opening round before the top two sides meet for the grand final. The usual rules allowing just four players and a netminder on the ice for two 20 minute periods with a running clock will return.
While the timing of the announcement of the tournament could have been made a lot earlier, there is no doubt that the idea of this competition as a pre-season warm up is an excellent one, particularly as the four players on the ice rule will allow the players to blow away the summer cobwebs given the extra space on the ice.
The Stingrays and coach Sylvain Cloutier will enter the single day competition 24 hours after opening their pre-season with a tournament of their own.
The P&O Cup, which has yet to be officially announced but is likely to fall between the Friday and Sunday of August Bank Holiday, is rumoured to see Rays, who were last years winners, face-off once again against the Nottingham Panthers and Dutch side the Tilburg Trappers.
