Pro-Tips 3on3 is designed to offer a program where the basic skills of skating, passing and shooting learned from playing regular hockey can be applied in a purely recreational format. Our winter league is also designed to offer the players juvenile age who have no hockey league in London a place to continue to play

Brochure    Rules

The program:

•  50 Minute games at Western Fair in London:

Although the ice time at western fair is considerably more than other area arenas we are increasing our game times to 50 minutes from the past 40 minute games. Our summer league in 2007 tried the longer games and enjoyed the extra time.

The cost for a team has been increased by $15 a player to offset the longer games and increased ice costs. Teams can consider adding a 10th skater to keep the cost per player at 2007 rates of $150 each.

****Division Alignment - Roster Rating SYSTEM****

We have developed a matrix to properly seed all teams and individual entries. On registration you will be required to list you current level of play (2007 winter season) as well as your age. When the team rosters are filled out each player will receive a pro-rated point rating that will be added together to give each team a total point score. Each player will receive points for their age and their winter team level.

As an example if you are entering a team of atom players (born in 1997 and 1996):

Players will be allowed to play on this team ranging from 1995 to 1998 and from any level of winter hockey.

Points are designated from 1,3,5,7,9 for ability with 1 being a new player, 3 house league , 5 Forest City or AE hockey , 7 A or AA hockey and 9 AAA winter hockey player.

The second scale will involve age: 1 being born in 1998, thru to 9 born in 1995.

Once all players are rated, and the team point total calculated we will take all team entries as of April first and align our divisions from the highest team total to the lowest, and separate the schedule for each division into 6 teams. The entire schedule will be introduced before the season starts, and if we need to re-align we will simply swap two teams set schedules.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Late registrants will risk proper divisional placement

2008 Spring SCHEDULING PROGRAM - London

We have already secured the ice at the Western Fair Sports Centre. As in past years the games are all on Fridays thru to Sundays in May and June. The league begins on Friday May 5th and ends on Sunday June 29th. We do play games on the long weekend in May, but the schedule is reduced as much as possible. All teams play 10 games over 9 weekends.

WE are also introducing standardization in our scheduling. We have found that in an attempt to please the minority of our team's requests for late scheduling changes; and requests for games on specific dates and days we aggravate the majority of our teams. 1 schedule change affects 3 or 4 teams. So this year we will set specific time periods for each age and ensure that 80% of each division's games will be within that predetermined time slot. The two weekends where we schedule 2 games for a team we may fall out of these time slots:

• Tykes (born 2001 and younger) - Saturdays ( 9am -3pm )
• Novices (born 1999-2000) - Saturdays ( 9am – 3pm )
• Atoms (born 1997-98) – Saturday afternoons ( 3pm – 7pm ) and Sunday mornings ( 9am - 12 )
• Peewees (born 1996-95) – Sunday afternoons ( 12 – 6 pm )
• Midgets (born 1992 and older) Sunday afternoons and Friday from 7-10pm
• Bantams (born 1994 -93) Sunday afternoons and Friday from 7-10pm

We understand that these time slots may result in some players not being able to participate in our program; but we feel an obligation to the majority of our players to provide enough structure to permit weekly planning. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Why Play 3 on 3 Hockey?

• "At the professional level an average player touches the puck for a total of about 27 seconds per game. In minor hockey it would be somewhat less than 27 seconds."
  (www.canadianhockey.ca)
• more playing time than most minor hockey games
• improve all skating, puckhandlings, passing and shooting skills
• learn to read and react to play, learn to create open ice. "For the effective development of young people and not necessarily hockey players, the following must have consideration: "
• create opportunities within a learning environment based on fun and participation
• allow creativity, informal learning (www.canadianhockey.ca)
• Keep the fun in playing hockey

Rules of Play

• No Body Contact
• No Standings
• No Play-offs
• No Pressure
• Just Play
• Constant play with no redline or icing
• Full ice, no face-offs, clear zone for goals
• Penalty shots for penalties
• To ensure parity, divisions realigned after 5 games
• Carded referees for atom and older divisions

Our league prides itself on the Courtesy, Respect & Sportsmanship among the players and coaches.

• Early registration will determine divisions
• Jersey provided, yours to keep, compliments of Pro-Tips Hockey and our Sponsors

Hockey by the Numbers

The following statistics were recorded by Hockey Canada during a peewee level game.

• Players had the puck on thier stick an average of 8 seconds
• Players took an average of 2 shots on net
• Players have the puck on their stick 2% of the time
• Players were on the ice playing for less than 9 minutes

The following statistics are for a 3on3 game.

• Players controlled the puck upwards of 3 minutes - goalies faced an average of 48 shots per game (over 5 per player)
• many games averaged 22 odd man rushes
• Players were on the ice playing for 13 minutes

Frequently asked questions about 3on3:

How many players should I have on a team?
Teams usually consist of 9 skaters and a goalie. You can play with as few as 7 players but they tend to get quite tired for the last 10 minutes without a full team of 9. If you want to play with extra players you may but we suggest no more than 11 as they have too much time on the bench.

Can I use spare players?
Yes, but they must be on your roster so they are covered for insurance purposes. We recommend having 2-3 that you can call on when players are away. How you deal with these spares paying for the games they play is entirely up to you team., but we suggest that they simply reimburse the family that has missed the game.

If I have extra players what about jerseys for them?
Your team is given 10 jerseys, 1 is a goalie cut. If you need more jerseys they can be purchased for $15 each.

Do I need a coaching card, or trainers card to be on the bench?
No, this is not a hockey Canada sanctioned league so you do not need any certification.

Can my son or daughter play together?
Yes, again this league is based on allowing school friends and family that cannot play together in organized hockey get together on the ice. For this reason we allow 2-3 years age difference on the same team, as well as AAA to house league players on the same team. We encourage a group of friends from the same school, or family from across town to play together, and since we realign the divisions after 2 games, and there are no play-offs we can move teams around to find the best matches for them.

I play other sports so when will my son/daughter play their 3on3 games?
We purposely move the different ages to different times on the weekends so as to ensure we do not conflict with set practice and game times the players have with organized soccer and lacrosse. We have learned from parents over the last 4 years that this works best. We do take many requests for certain times and days of the week and we try our best to accommodate all of them but our first priority is always to fair and aligned divisions so sometimes in order to get the right teams playing against each other we have to have some give and take. For instance, if a novice team requests only Saturday mornings and the other 5 novice teams want to only play Sundays, something has to give.

To Register

Individual Registration      Team Registration.
For more information contact Ross Townsned at 519-963-2261 or ross.townsend@pro-tips.com