December 2022 Olivier Cup playoffs
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 1 December - 14 December 2022 |
| Teams | 4 |
| Defending champions | None |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Augustine Yetis (1st title) |
| Runner-up | Draytopol Dragons |
| Third place | Excelsior Red Star |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Scoring leader(s) | Augustine Yetis (23 points) |
February 2023 → | |
The December 2022 Olivier Cup playoffs was the inaugural playoff tournament of the Micronational Hockey League. The playoffs began on 1 December 2022, one day after the conclusion of the November-December 2022 MHL season, and ended on 14 December 2022, with the Augustine Yetis winning their first Olivier Cup against the Draytopol Dragons in three games to one in the Olivier Cup Finals.
The Draytopol Dragons made the playoffs as the Farrokhzad Trophy winners with the most points (i.e. best record) during the regular season. Three of the four qualifying teams (75%) were from Georgienstine, the highest percentage since the inception of the league. Excelsior Red Star was the only team to qualify who was from outside Georgienstine.
Playoff seeds
The league, under its first year with only 8 teams, operated with the two teams from each conference qualifying for the playoffs, making for four playoff teams in the league.
The following teams qualified for the playoffs:
Overseas Conference
- Draytopol Dragons, Overseas Conference division champions, Farrokhzad Trophy winners – 12 points
- Excelsior Red Star – 8 points
Mainland Conference
- Augustine Yetis, Mainland Conference division champions – 10 points
- Salem Spartans – 9 points
Playoff bracket
In each round, teams compete in a best-of-five series following a 2–2–1 format (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each best-of-five series). The team with home ice advantage plays at home for games one and two (and game five, if necessary), and the other team is at home for game three (and game four, if necessary). The top two teams from each conference clinch a playoff berth, making for a four-team playoff.
In the first round, the first and second seeds from each conference play, and the finals were between the winner of both first-round series. In both rounds, home ice advantage was awarded to the team with the better regular season record.
The playoffs also feature a consolation game known as the Bronze Blades, named after the award gifted to the winner of said game. It is the only round in the Olivier Cup playoffs to be a single game, rather than a best-of-five series. The Bronze Blades is the equivalent of a bronze metal.
| First Round | |||||||||||||
| O1 | Draytopol | 3 | |||||||||||
| O2 | Excelsior | 0 | Olivier Cup Finals | ||||||||||
| O1 | Draytopol | 1 | |||||||||||
| First Round | M1 | Augustine | 3 | ||||||||||
| M1 | Augustine | 3 | |||||||||||
| M2 | Salem | 2 | Bronze Blades | ||||||||||
| O2 | Excelsior | 3[a][b] | |||||||||||
| M2 | Salem | 2 | |||||||||||
- Legend
- O1, O2 – The first and second place teams from the Overseas Conference, respectively.
- M1, M2 – The first and second place teams from the Mainland Conference, respectively.