Right on the heels of my previous blog posting, the CCHA announced today that they’ll be experimenting with a few of the rule changes that the rules committee has encouraged conferences to try out, plus implementing instant replay in all arenas in the league.

The experimental rules will be used in exhibition games to open the season and include changes that mirror the changes recently made in the NHL, most notably regarding icing. In these exhibitions, icing will prevent the team that iced the puck from changing lines. In addition, icing will be called on the penalty kill on the short-handed team. We should definitely see a bump in scoring and a change in style during these games.

More exciting to me is the two official, two linesman set-up that they will use in these exhibitions. If executed properly we’ll hopefully see games called in a more consistent and accurate fashion.

A big thumbs up to the CCHA for stepping up and giving everyone else in college hockey an opportunity to take a look at the impact of these new changes.

Wednesday, September 27th, 2006 - 8:51 pm | News