The Inter-National League was an international
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
league that was a partnership between the national federations of
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
and
Slovenia
Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
. It was created as a solution to semi-professional hockey in both Austria and neighboring Slovenia. In 2016, the league merged with
Serie A
The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...
to form the
Alps Hockey League.
History
The Inter-National League was founded on July 14, 2012 with seven teams joining the inaugural season. In Austria, seven out of eleven teams from the previous season's second tier, the
Austrian National League, had left the league. Two teams,
Dornbirner EC and
TWK Innsbruck, were accepted into the
Austrian Hockey League. The remaining teams either folded or chose to play in lower local leagues.
Acroni Jesenice was confirmed to become an inaugural member. However, due to financial problems the team informed the league that they would be folding effective August 31, 2012 (two weeks before the start of the season.)
On June 8, 2013, the league's 2013–14 season was decided and it saw the league jump from six teams to 15. After the late fold of Acroni Jesenice, Team Jesenice participated in the league this season as one of four new Slovenian clubs. The other three Slovenian newcomers were
Bled,
Maribor
Maribor ( , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is the seat of the ...
and
Celje. The league also welcomed Italian sides
SV Caldaro/Kaltern,
Eppan Pirates,
Merano Junior,
Neumarkt-Egna Wildgoose and
Gherdëina.
For the 2014–15 season, Maribor and the five Italian teams left the league, whereas
Kitzbühel and
Steelers Kapfenberg joined the competition. In addition, the teams were allowed four imports (two U-22, and two with no age limit). These imports could not have been exchanged between teams in the league.
Scheduling
The inaugural INL season started on September 15, 2012, while the last game in the regular season took place on March 2, 2013. The INL playoffs semi-finals and finals were all played in best-of-five format.
The scheduling for the INL was designed to keep the travel costs at a minimum. Each team played a total of 36 games in a set of six rounds (three home games, three away against all six opponents.) The league featured a "double weekend", where opponents were played on back-to-back games during the weekend.
Scoring
INL games were scored with the "three-point rule": three points for the winner after regular time, two points if teams win after overtime or shootout, and one for the loser after regular time.
Trades and transfers
Transfers were permitted during the season, but only if both teams reached an agreement.
Teams
Inter-National League seasons
References
External links
Inter-National Leagueat eurohockey.com
{{Ice Hockey Leagues
Defunct multi-national ice hockey leagues in Europe
2
2
2
Sports leagues established in 2012
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2016 disestablishments in Europe