Serie A1 (inline hockey)

Serie A1 is a professional inline hockey league composed of eleven teams in Italy. It is the highest-level inline hockey league in Italy. Naturally, Italians constitute a large majority of the players in Serie A1.

2008–09 Teams

Season structure

The Serie A1 season is divided into a regular season (from mid November through the end of April) and a postseason (the Serie A1 Campionato). During the regular season, clubs play each other in a predefined schedule. The Serie A1 Campionato (or Serie A1 Championship), which goes from the April to June, is an elimination tournament where two teams play against each other to win a series in order to advance to the next round. The final remaining team is crowned the Serie A1 Campione (Champion).

In the regular season, each team plays 20 games; 10 games at home and 10 on the road. Each team plays every other team twice (1 at home and 1 on the road).

Points are awarded for each game, where three points are awarded for a win in regulation, two points for a win in overtime or shootout, one point for a loss in overtime or shootout, and zero points for a loss in regulation.

At the end of the regular season, the top 8 teams in the standings qualify for the playoffs. The teams are seeded one through eight based on regular season standings. The Serie A1 Campionato is an elimination tournament, where two teams battle to win a best-of-three series in order to advance to the next round. The first round of the playoffs, or quarterfinals, consists of the first seed playing the eighth seed, the second playing the seventh, third playing the sixth, and the fourth playing the fifth. In the second round, or semifinals, the winner of the 1–8 series plays the winner of the 4–5 series, and the winner of the 2–7 series plays the winner of the 3–6 series. In the third round, or Campionato Finale (Championship Final), the two remaining teams play each other in a best-of-five series.

In each round the higher-ranked team is said to be the team with the home-floor advantage. In the first two rounds, two of the three games are played at this team's home venue – the second, and when necessary, the third games – with the other games played at the lower-ranked team's home venue. In the Campionato Finale, three of the five games are played at the higher ranked team's home venue – the second, third, and when necessary, the fifth games – with the other games played at the lower-ranked team's home venue.