Major League Roller Hockey Pro Division

MLRH Pro

Most recent season or competition: 2011–12 MLRH Pro season
Sport	Inline hockey
Founded	1998, Alexandria, Virginia, United States
Inaugural season	1998 MLRH season
CEO	Doug Jones
No. of teams	8
Country	United States (8 teams)
Headquarters	Alexandria, Virginia, United States
Continent	North America
Most recent champion(s)	Mission Axiom (2nd title)
Most titles	Marple Gladiators Mission Axiom (2 titles)
TV partner(s)	Roller Hockey TV
Official website	MLRH.com

The Major League Roller Hockey Pro (MLRH Pro) is a professional inline hockey league, operated by Major League Roller Hockey (MLRH). The league consists of eight member clubs, all of which are currently located in the United States. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, the MLRH Pro is the only professional full contact inline hockey league in the world. The MLRH World Championship is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season.

Game

Each Major League Roller Hockey Pro regulation game is played between two teams and is 40 minutes long. The game is composed of two 20-minute periods with an intermission of two minutes. At the end of the 40-minute regulation time, the team with the most goals wins the game. If a game is tied after regulation time, overtime ensues. During the regular season, overtime is a five-minute, three-player on three-player sudden-death period, in which the first team to score a goal wins the game. If the game is still tied at the end of overtime, the game enters a shootout. Three players for each team in turn take a penalty shot. The team with the most goals during the three-round shootout wins the game. If the game is still tied after the three shootout rounds, the shootout continues but becomes sudden death. Whichever team ultimately wins the shootout is awarded a goal in the game score and thus awarded two points in the standings. The losing team in overtime or shootout is awarded only one. Shootout goals and saves are not tracked in hockey statistics; shootout statistics are tracked separately. Shootouts do not occur during the playoffs. In the playoffs, sudden-death 20-minute four-on-four periods are played until one team scores.

Inline hockey rink

Major League Roller Hockey Pro games are played on a rectangular inline hockey rink with rounded corners surrounded by walls and Plexiglas. The official size measures 85 by 200 feet (25.91 by 60.92 meters) in MLRH, but may vary in width from 65 to 100 feet and vary in length from 130 to 200 feet. The center line divides the floor in half, which divides the floor into two attacking zones. Near the end of both ends of the rink, there is a thin red goal line spanning the width of the floor, which is used to judge goals.

Season structure

The Major League Roller Hockey Pro season is divided into a regular season (from October through March) and a postseason (the MLRH Pro playoffs). During the regular season, clubs play each other in a predefined schedule. The MLRH Pro playoffs, in April, is an elimination tournament where two teams play against each other to win a best-of-three series in order to advance to the next round. The final remaining team is crowned the MLRH World Champion.

In the regular season, with the current eight-team MLRH Pro geographically split up into two four-team conferences, and each conference having one divisions of four teams apiece, each team plays 15 games; attending five "events", playing three games per "event". Each team plays all 15 games in its own geographic division.

MLRH Pro's regular season standings are based on a point system instead of winning percentages. Points are awarded for each game, where two points are awarded for a win, one point for losing in overtime or a shootout, and zero points for a loss in regulation.

The one division champion along with the other team in each conference with the next highest number of points, for a total of two teams in each conference, qualify for the playoffs. The division winner is seeded one, and the next team with the best record in the conference is seeded two. The MLRH Pro playoffs is an elimination tournament, where the teams are grouped in pairs to play best-of-three series, the winners moving on to the next round. The first round of the playoffs, or conference finals, consist of the first seed playing the second seed, with the conference champions proceeding to the MLRH World Championship Finals.

Teams

The current league organization divides the teams into two conferences: the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Each conference has two divisions, and each division has four teams. The current organization has roots in the 2012–13 season when a league expansion added two divisions to bring the total number of divisions to four.

List of teams