A change in how the Great Northern Conference crowns its boys' hockey champion will take place in 2019 and it will involve the first tournament for a strictly team sport in the conference's history.
Starting next season, the GNC will conclude its conference slate with an eight-team tournament which will be used, in part, to determine the conference champion and the final conference standings. The plan was approved, in principle, in a meeting of the conference principals March 7.
Next season all teams in the GNC will play a single round-robin schedule of seven games. Teams will be seeded and awarded points following the round-robin portion of the schedule, which will lead into a three-round tournament that will begin with quarterfinal matchups Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019.
