The 2000–01 Ice Hockey Superleague season was the fifth season of the Sekonda Ice Hockey Superleague (ISL).
Belfast Giants, a new team formed in Northern Ireland, were granted a franchise, although they did not take part in the Benson & Hedges Cup. The Newcastle franchise was sold to Harry Harkimo, co-owner of Jokerit who play in the Finnish SM-liiga, and their name was changed to the Newcastle Jesters (Jokerit being Finnish for Jester).
This season, the league awarded three points for a win, two points for an overtime win and one point for an overtime loss in all competitions except the Benson & Hedges Cup. Any game still tied after overtime was decided by a penalty shootout.
The Sheffield Steelers won a Grand Slam of all available competitions. However, the win was marred by the club being found guilty by the league for breaking the £450,000 wage cap[1] and going into liquidation at the end of the season.[2]
The 2000 Benson & Hedges Cup consisted of the teams from the ISL, minus the Belfast Giants, and the teams from the British National League (BNL). The ISL teams were split into two groups of four teams (groups A and B) and the BNL teams were split into two groups, one of four teams (group C) and one of five teams (group D). Each team played the other teams in the group once at home and away.
The group winners from the BNL groups entered the knock-out stage in a challenge round with the fourth placed teams from the ISL group stage. The winners of the challenge rounds entered the quarter-finals with the top three teams from each ISL group.
All games after the group stages were home and away aggregate scores except for the challenge round and the final itself which were one-off games. The final was held at Sheffield Arena.
Winner Group C (Fife) vs 4th place Group B (Newcastle)
Winner Group D (Guildford) vs 4th place Group A (Bracknell)
3rd place Group B (Nottingham) vs 2nd place Group A (Manchester)
Winner challenge game 2 (Bracknell) vs Winner Group B (Sheffield)
3rd place Group A (Cardiff) vs 2nd place Group B (London)
Winner challenge game 1 (Newcastle) vs Winner Group A (Ayr)
Winner semi final 2 (Sheffield) vs Winner semi final 1 (Nottingham)
Winner semi final 4 (Newcastle) vs Winner semi final 3 (London)
The final took place at Sheffield Arena between Sheffield Steelers and Newcastle Jesters.
All nine teams in the league competed in the Challenge Cup. The first round was the first home and away meeting of each team in the league with the points counting towards both the Challenge Cup table and the league table. The top four teams progressed to the semi-finals. The semi finals were home and away games with the winner on aggregate progressing to the one off final game.
Sheffield Steelers won the competition for the third time in a row.
1st place (Belfast) vs 4th place (Sheffield)
3rd place (Ayr) vs 2nd place (London)
Winner semi final 1 vs Winner semi final 2
Each team played three home games and three away games against each of their opponents. The top eight teams in the league were entered into the playoffs.
The top eight teams in the league took part in the playoffs. Group A consisted of Belfast, London, Nottingham and Sheffield while Group B consisted of Ayr, Bracknell, Cardiff and Manchester. The top two teams from each playoff group qualified for the finals weekend. The third place playoff was dropped for this season.
Winner Group A vs 2nd place Group B
Winner Group B vs 2nd place Group A
Winner semi final 1 vs Winner semi final 2
The scoring leaders are taken from all league games.