The 2011 European Trophy was the second European Trophy, a Europeanice hockey tournament held annually. It was also the sixth tournament since its predecessor, the Nordic Trophy, was launched in 2006. The regulation round began on 11 August 2011 and ended on 6 September 2011. The playoffs, which took place in Austria, were played 16–18 December 2011 in the Eisarena Salzburg in Salzburg, and the Albert Schultz Eishalle in Vienna, at the same time as the 2011 Channel One Cup. The playoff hosts, Red Bull Salzburg, won the playoffs and captured their first championship title in the European Trophy tournament, having lost in the quarterfinals last year.
A significant difference in this year's tournament was that the number of participating teams was increased from 18 to 24. To compensate this, the teams were divided into four divisions this year, instead of just two in the previous year's tournament. Another difference was that the playoffs, known as the Red Bulls Salute, were not played at the same time as the regulation round—the regulation round was played between August–September 2011, while the playoffs were played in December, three months later. Further, the junior edition was disbanded prior to this year's tournament.
Tournament format
The 24 teams in the tournament were, based on geographical location, divided into four divisions: the West Division, the North Division, the South Division, and the East Division. Each division consisted of 6 teams who played a round-robin in their division, and another three games against teams from the other three divisions (see the Division vs. Division games section), giving a total of 8 games per team. The top two teams of each division qualified for the playoffs, but as Red Bull Salzburg qualified for the playoffs as hosts (i.e. failed to reach one of the top two spots of the East Division), they replaced the worst second ranked team out of all four divisions, which was Eisbären Berlin.
Had at least two teams in the same division ended up tied in points, the following tie-breaker format was used:
As Red Bull Salzburg, who were automatically qualified for the playoffs, failed to reach one of the top two spots of the East Division, the same tie-breaker format was used to determine which second ranked team they would replace, which was Eisbären Berlin.[1]
The playoffs are played as the Red Bulls Salute and take place in Salzburg and Vienna between 16–18 December 2011. The teams that lose the quarterfinals play in the classification games. The classification games decide which teams play in the respective games for 7th place and 5th place.
The European Star Award is a three stars award given to the three best players in each game. The first star gets three points, the second gets two points, and the third gets one point. List shows the top ten players based on the number of European Star Award points.
