Official Rules

Connecticut Girls Hockey League

Introduction Letter

Welcome to another great season for Connecticut Girls Hockey!

The Connecticut Girl's Hockey League ("CGHL") follows USA Hockey Rules, with a few differences.  For the first 10 years of our league, CGHL specific rules were memorialized in Board meeting minutes.  The system worked because our league has been blessed with steady representation by a solid core of longstanding board members, many of whom served since inception or very close to it. 

Our long time Board members each offer unique perspectives, but they share a common understanding about what’s important to strike that balance between fun, effort, life lessons, sportsmanship and competition. Where there are shared values, rules are often unnecessary and so it’s no surprise the league has grown over the past 10 years without formally codifying its rules.

Today’s CGHL member programs share the common beliefs that girls benefit from a girls only hockey league, devoted entirely to girls’ unique needs for team social interaction, inclusiveness and fun with great opportunities for competition and growth. While numbers everywhere fluctuate each season, CGHL encourages member programs to be inclusive and welcoming to girls brand new to hockey while affording space to grow with opportunities for increased challenges and competition as girls gain skills.

Now, in our 10th year, we have some new members and some long standing ones with new representatives who want to become better familiar with CGHL’s unique rules and the way the CGHL does things. These rules are designed to help newer Reps in this regard and to provide a frame of reference for understanding and asking questions as they get acclimated. So long as we do not lose sight of the values we share in common and keep focused on the spirit these rules embody — versus their form, the next 10 years promise to be just as bright as our first decade!

Spirit versus Form of Rules

CGHL member programs share the common beliefs that girls benefit from a girls only hockey league, devoted entirely to girls’ unique needs for team social interaction, inclusiveness and fun with great opportunities for competition and growth. While numbers everywhere fluctuate each season, most thriving member programs have structured themselves to be inclusive and welcoming to girls brand new to hockey while providing significant growth opportunities with increased challenges and competition as girls gain skills. The intent of these rules is to further our mission and provide girls a great league to experience and grow with girls hockey while celebrating effort, fun, development, competition and excellence. In applying these rules their spirt shall be given greater weight than their form.

Board Attendance Policy

The CGHL is run by volunteers. The strength of our league depends on a vibrant Board with board members being regularly available and present at Board meetings. Attendance at regular meeting is mandatory. In the event a Board member or his/her designee misses two (2) consecutive meetings, a note shall be sent to the program’s President alerting of their representative’s absence and reminding attendance is crucial to the health of the league. Upon three (3) or more absences by a member program’s designated CGHL representative, or its designee, the Board may suspend the local program’s voting rights. In addition the Board may remove the designated representative from the Board and request the program to provide a new designated representative.

CGHL Dues

CGHL Dues are set at the start of the season, as soon as practicable, and due before December 31st. Programs that fail to pay dues by December 31st shall be subject to a $100 additional charge per team. In addition, teams that fail to bring accounts current by January 15th may be suspended from regular season play and excluded from participation in the CGHL Championship Tournaments.

The rule was changed by the board in 2022:  

Payment is due on October 15th. Programs that fail to pay dues by October 15th shall be subject to a $100 additional charge per team. In addition, teams that fail to bring accounts current by January 15th (U10,U12,U14)may be suspended from regular season play and excluded from participation in the CGHL Championship Tournaments. Delinquent programs will be reviewed in March by the executive board for inclusion the following year. 

Team Rosters

Final Team rosters are due as soon as possible and by December’s Regular Board Meeting (generally on or about December 15th). Teams that fail to submit final team rosters by December’s Regular Board Meeting shall be subject to an additional $100 charge per team, unless there are extenuating circumstances (e.g. documented USA Hockey issues such as citizenship verification, etc.). Absent extenuating circumstances approved by USA Hockey AND the CGHL, any team that fails to submit final rosters by December 31st shall be suspended from CGHL league play and programs should be aware their failure to abide by USA Hockey rules may put program’s USA Hockey insurance at risk and subject programs to liability for any injury claims.

The roster rules were clarified by the board in 2023:  

• No Tier 1 girl or varsity prep school student may play in any CGHL  game, including tournament play. If this happens the game will be thrown out and will not count towards minimum playing requirements and will count as a forfeit of the game during tournament play. 

• Any team with a Tier 2 player or Tier 2 team, must be placed in Division 1, in the appropriate age group. 

• No Tier 2 player or Varsity prep school student may play on a division 2 team. Adding a Tier 2 player mid season will mean the team will need to move up to Division 1. 

The Roster Rules were changed by the board in 2024 due to CHC awarding Tier 3 status to CGHL: 

• No Tier 1 girl or varsity prep school student may play in any CGHL game, including tournament play. If this happens the game will be thrown out and will not count towards minimum playing requirements and will count as a forfeit of the game during tournament play. 

• Tier two national bound teams may play against CGHL teams, but it will not be considered a CGHL League game. 

• Any player that is rostered on a Tier 2 national bound team may not play in any CGHL tournament game, in any division. (exceptions have been approved for the 25-26 season and tournament). 

Player Releases

Any players that moves from one program to another shall not be eligible to play on the player’s new team until a release is obtained from the prior season’s member program and furnished to the new program a copy of which shall be filed with the CGHL.

Note: Organizations no longer dealing with releases, they are following USA hockey and CHC regulations for non payments.  CGHL urges all programs to know the latest rules and process. 

Disputes / Questions / Grievances

Questions, disputes and/or grievances concerning CGHL rules shall be brought first to a program’s CGHL Representative (“CGHL Rep”). A local program’s CGHL Rep will determine if further action may be necessary and , if so, send an email to the Commissioner. The Commissioner will attempt to arbitrate a settlement between the teams in question. Failing a successful resolution of the issue at hand, all involved teams will have an opportunity to submit their positions to the commissioner via e-mail who will forward this information along to the Executive Board for a discussion of the issues, proposed resolutions and finally a vote of the Executive Board. If a decision on the issue(s) raised can wait until a regularly scheduled Board meeting, and the Executive Board determines a discussion by the greater Board would be helpful, the matter shall be placed on the regular agenda for a discussion of the issues, proposed resolutions and finally a vote of the Board. If the Commissioner determines the a decision on the issues raised cannot wait until a regularly scheduled Board meeting, then the matter shall be decided by the Executive Board.

Summary of selected Deadlines & Rules

Dual Roster Petitions (see 2.1, below) must be made BEFORE a player plays with a team, as soon as possible with a cutoff deadline (absent extraordinary circumstances) by the Board’s regular November meeting usually on or about November 15th.

Play Down Petitions (see 2.2, below) must be made BEFORE a player plays with the younger age group team.

Cross rostering (see 2.3, below) playing on primary team and another team (within the same program) same age group or an older age group (see 2.3 below).

CGHL Roster Deadline - Submit to the CGHL as soon as possible (generally by the end of September) with final roster due by December (see 1.4 above) or incur $100 fee and possible suspension from league.

CGHL Dues - generally set at regular Board meeting in September. Due by December or incur

$100 fee and possible suspension from league.

Dual Roster Policy.

• Dual Roster petitions must be brought to the Board PRIOR to the player playing in any games.

• Dual roster petitions must be brought to the Board no later than November 15th.

• Review of petitioned players must be presented no later than December 31st.

Upon petition, the CGHL Board will consider approving players from CHC girls or boys tournament declared teams with the following to be used as guidelines for approval:

• Minimize contraction within the league or promote league growth

• Provide exposure to the CGHL for younger non CGHL players

• Provide existing CGHL player opportunities to play elsewhere while keeping CGHL eligibility

• How the Board’s ruling will effect the member team’s balance

• CGHL players who seek to dual roster on CHC Boys or Girls teams shall be declared to the CGHL Board at earliest opportunity and on or before the November 15th deadline, but shall not need special permission from the Board. CGHL players dual rostering on CHC teams remain subject to Minimum Game Requirements.

• Individual CGHL member programs are encouraged to adopt Dual Rostering policies.

Petitions to the Board shall include the following information:

• Player’s Name, birthdate

• Players skill, experience and specifics

  1. If CHC team

     • Team name,

     • Team CHC Tier (e.g. T1, T2, T3 or T4)

     • Player’s relative strength on CHC team (e.g. bottom, middle, top 1/3)

     • Player’s relative (size, aggressiveness, skating ability) for player’s age group

At Board’s discretion, the Board can elect to require a player to play up to the next available age level (e.g. U12 age player may be approved for U14 age level play)

All players must play in at least 75% of CGHL minimum games requirement (see 2.3, below) to be eligible for CGHL tournament play.

At the Board’s discretion, players can be “conditionally approved” pending further review once some games have been played to better determine if a decision to approve is appropriate.

Play Down Requests

Criteria for new to hockey, individual players playing with a younger age group than they would otherwise be eligible.

Upon petition, the CGHL Board will consider approving players to play down an age level (e.g. U14 age player playing with U12 team) with the following to be used as guidelines for approval:

Play down petitions must be brought to the Board PRIOR to the player playing in any games.

Some players benefit from the slower pace and less aggressive play younger, less experienced age divisions generally offer.

Especially when new players have not yet learned proper

3. • skating posture

   • balance

   • directional control and/or

   • edge control

   • speed

Play down requests work well with candid and accurate assessment by a program’s experienced coaches and/or  representatives. For some brand new players, a lower age division may be still too aggressive and fast paced. In such cases, the player should be directed to skating clinics until they develop sufficient skill to join team play. During the season, in the event a player progresses to the point where it makes sense for them to join the player’s age group, programs should make every effort to do so. At the Board’s discretion, players can be “conditionally approved” pending further review once some games have been played to better determine if a decision to approve is appropriate. So long as player’s skill ranking is in bottom 2/3 of a team, players who join a team after participating in learn to skate clinic(s) may participate in the season ending tournament (without being subject to the Minimum Games Requirement). For USA Hockey insurance purposes, USA Hockey roster age for the team must reflect the age group of the oldest player rostered on the team. E.g. if a U14 age player is approved by CGHL to play down on a U12 CGHL team, the USA Hockey roster age group must reflect U14 even though all but one player is not U12 age eligible. The CGHL team will still compete in the CGHL U12 age group even though its USA Hockey Roster Age Group is U14.

Cross Rostering

Whenever possible, local programs should seek to field full teams without relying on players from other teams within their programs to cover low roster numbers. Despite a program’s best efforts, often from year to year, team roster sizes fluctuate or players are unavailable due to a variety of reasons. To provide girls access to hockey it is sometimes helpful to cross roster players within a program. Cross rostering occurs in two scenarios: (1) playing on age appropriate team and an older age group team “Playing up”, and (2) if a program has more than one team per age group, playing on more than one team within the same age group.

Playing up. Playing up. Younger players may play on their age group team and on an older age group team (e.g. U12 also plays on U14).

• Play up requests work well with candid and accurate assessment by a program’s experienced coaches and/or  representatives.

• In order to be eligible for tournament play for both age groups, players must meet minimum game requirements.

Same age group. When programs have more than one team per age group, players may play on more than one team subject to the following guidelines.

• Programs must assign players to a primary team.

• Programs should sort teams according to skill and share with other member programs which team is more skilled.

• Highest skilled players from weaker team should cross roster on stronger team.

• Weakest skilled players from stronger team should cross roster on weaker team.

• Absent extraordinary circumstances, unless prior approval from the Board is obtained by the February meeting, players will only be eligible for CGHL Championship Tournament play on their primary team.

• Cross roster requests work well with candid and accurate assessment by a program’s experienced coaches and/or  representatives.

• Goalies - If documented hardship, with prior approval the cross rostering rule may be relaxed for goalies.

Minimum Games Requirements

Teams - Teams must play a minimum number of CGHL games as determined by the Board at the start of the season. In general, the minimum number of games shall be home and home games versus teams in the team’s declared division and at least one game versus teams in any other division of their age group.

The above paragraph was changed by board vote since 2016 to read: 

U8 teams and players are exempt from all minimum game requirements.

As a CGHL team the minimum playing requirement, and requirement for inclusion in the CGHL tournament is that each team will play a minimum of a Home & Home with each team in the division of their age level, they will also play a team in the other division once during the season.  The first two games played count in the standings, any games after that are not counted officially. The team may schedule games in age divisions above/below their age level if they would like to do that to get competitive games, only games in their age level will count in the standings. Each organization’s scheduler is responsible for meeting this requirement, and it is in the spirit of fair play that every team will fulfill its minimum playing requirement.  Teams that don’t fulfill the requirement will receive a letter to their organization’s president. If it happens again the following year, they will need to reapply for CGHL membership. (Approved Oct 16, 2023)

A maximum of two games between opponents of the same age group will be considered for league standings purposes. If two teams play each other more than twice, the additional games are to be considered non-league.

Players-

General Rule - in order for a player to be eligible for tournament play, she must play in at least 75% of the minimum regular season games determined by the Board at the start of the season.

Example: Team plays 25 CGHL games and a player plays in 15 of them and the board set the minimum number of CGHL games at 15, then for the purposes of this rule, the player will be deemed to fully satisfied the minimum games requirement (15 of 15min = 100%).

[Reasoning: In trying to strike a balance The CGHL wants to encourage CGHL games among our member programs in excess of the minimum requirement versus discouraging CGHL play for fear of disqualifying players from Tournament eligibility]

Exceptions:

• documented injury or illness (verified by physician)

• brand new players who have been participating and progressing in clinics and have progressed to the point where it makes sense for them to participate in game play.

• goalies. Due to the uniqueness of the position, many programs scramble to find goalies. At the younger age groups (U12 and younger) all players are encouraged to take a turn in goal. That said, the CGHL does not typically hold goalies to the same requirements as skaters and the minimum games requirement is typically relaxed for goalies. Programs’ CGHL Reps are encouraged to share their circumstances for discussion by the Board whenever possible.

Scoresheets

Scoresheets provide a written record of player, coach and officials attendance, penalties assessed, assists and goals. The CGHL does not collect scoresheets. It is in each team’s interest to maintain copies of scoresheets in the event issues arise. Issues regarding player eligibility should be brought to the opposing team’s attention as soon as discovered and shared with your local program’s CGHL Rep as soon as possible.

Tournament Planning Executive Board shall plan the tournament. A tournament committee may be convened for assistance in planning and executing the tournament.

Tournament Rules

Tournament Rules 

*completed by the Executive board and approved by representatives in 2016