# 2007–08 EIHL season

The 2007–08 Elite Ice Hockey League season began September 5, 2007 and ran until April 6, 2008. It was the fifth season of Elite League competition.
The defending league champions were the Coventry Blaze, who were also the holders of the Challenge Cup. The Nottingham Panthers looked to defend the Play Off Championship they won for the first time in eighteen years in 2007.

## Movements between Elite League teams

| Player | From | To | Date |
| Pavel Gomenyuk | Hull Stingrays | Newcastle Vipers | April 19 |
| Sergiy Rublivsky | Hull Stingrays | Newcastle Vipers | April 24 |
| Mark Richardson | Cardiff Devils | Nottingham Panthers | May 1 |
| Ashley Tait | Coventry Blaze | Sheffield Steelers | May 9 |
| Jonathan Weaver | Newcastle Vipers | Coventry Blaze | May 9 |
| Doug Shepard | Basingstoke Bison | Sheffield Steelers | May 10 |
| Slava Koulikov | Hull Stingrays | Basingstoke Bison | May 14 |
| Phil Hill | Sheffield Steelers | Cardiff Devils | May 17 |
| Russ Cowley | Cardiff Devils | Coventry Blaze | May 29 |
| Derek Campbell | Manchester Phoenix | Newcastle Vipers | May 31 |
| Paul Moran | Sheffield Steelers | Belfast Giants | May 31 |
| Johan Molin | Manchester Phoenix | Nottingham Panthers | June 4 |
| Marc Levers | Belfast Giants | Nottingham Panthers | June 6 |
| Matus Petricko | Nottingham Panthers | Cardiff Devils | June 6 |
| Curtis Huppe | Belfast Giants | Coventry Blaze | June 12 |
| Jeff Hutchins | Belfast Giants | Newcastle Vipers | July 3 |
| Jeremy Cornish | Newcastle Vipers | Sheffield Steelers | July 16 |

## Charity Shield

The season began on September 5, 2007 with a "Charity Shield" style game between the 2006–07 league champions and Challenge Cup winning Coventry Blaze and the playoff champions Nottingham Panthers at the National Ice Centre. The Panthers defeated the Blaze 7-6 to win the inaugural event.
| Nottingham | 7 – 6 | Coventry | National Ice Centre (19.30) |
| | First period | | Ref: Michael Hicks |
| | | 0-1 Cloutier (Weaver, Ndur) 00.52 | Att: 3,500+ |
| | | 0-2 Huppe (Cloutier, Cowley) 05.44 |
| 1-2 McAslan (Pelletier, Drouin) SH 13.19 |
| | | 1-3 Martin (Moore) PP 13.57 |
| 2-3 Drouin (McAslan, Neilson) SH 15.42 |
| 3-3 Drouin (Meyers, Richardson) 18.45 |
| | Second period | | |
| 4-3 Pelletier (Myers) 25.15 |
| | | 4-4 Stewart (Martin, Moore) 4-on-4 32.12 |
| | | 4-5 Cowley (Stewart, Moore) 35.15 |
| 5-5 Stancok (Richardson) PP 36.25 |
| | Third period | | |
| | | 5-6 Carlson (Weaver) SH 40.38 |
| 6-6 Neilson (Drouin) PP 41.18 |
| 7-6 Drouin (Neilson, McAslan) PP 48.56 |

## Challenge Cup

For the preliminary round, teams were divided into two groups of five with teams playing each of their opponents once with two homes games and two away games. The home and away games for each club were determined by a random draw. The top two in each group advanced to the semi-finals of the competition.

### Group stage
#### Group A

| | Team | P | W | L | T | GF | GA | Pts |
| 1 | Nottingham Panthers | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 7 | 7 |
| 2 | Cardiff Devils | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 9 | 5 |
| 3 | Coventry Blaze | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 4 |
| 4 | Basingstoke Bison | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 18 | 3 |
| 5 | Belfast Giants | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 17 | 1 |

#### Group B

| | Team | P | W | L | T | GF | GA | Pts |
| 1 | Sheffield Steelers | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 9 | 6 |
| 2 | Newcastle Vipers | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 6 |
| 3 | Manchester Phoenix | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 11 | 4 |
| 4 | Edinburgh Capitals | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 4 |
| 5 | Hull Stingrays | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 18 | 0 |

### Semi-finals
#### Winner A (Nottingham) vs Runner-up B (Newcastle)

| Date | Date | Home | Away | Result | Venue |
| 1 | November 20 | Nottingham Panthers 5 | Newcastle Vipers 4 | Final | National Ice Centre |
| 2 | November 30 | Newcastle Vipers 1 | Nottingham Panthers 5 | Final | Metro Radio Arena |
| Nottingham won 10–5 on aggregate ||||||

#### Winner B (Sheffield) vs Runner-up A (Cardiff)

| Date | Date | Home | Away | Result | Venue |
| 1 | November 28 | Cardiff Devils 4 | Sheffield Steelers 4 | Final | Cardiff Bay Ice Rink |
| 2 | December 5 | Sheffield Steelers 2 | Cardiff Devils 0 | Final | IceSheffield |
| Sheffield won 6–4 on aggregate ||||||

### Final

| Date | Date | Home | Away | Result | Venue |
| 1 | January 23 | Sheffield Steelers 3 | Nottingham Panthers 6 | Final | Sheffield Arena |
| 2 | February 20 | Nottingham Panthers 3 | Sheffield Steelers 4 | Final | National Ice Centre |
| Nottingham won 9–7 on aggregate ||||||

## League

| Regular season standings | GP | W | L | OTL | GF | GA | Pts |
| Coventry Blaze | 54 | 41 | 11 | 2 | 217 | 157 | 85 |
| Sheffield Steelers | 54 | 38 | 14 | 2 | 190 | 128 | 78 |
| Nottingham Panthers | 54 | 33 | 18 | 3 | 172 | 133 | 69 |
| Belfast Giants | 54 | 33 | 19 | 2 | 184 | 150 | 68 |
| Newcastle Vipers | 54 | 28 | 22 | 4 | 159 | 174 | 60 |
| Cardiff Devils | 54 | 26 | 25 | 3 | 164 | 174 | 55 |
| Manchester Phoenix | 54 | 23 | 28 | 3 | 162 | 179 | 49 |
| Edinburgh Capitals | 54 | 19 | 32 | 3 | 155 | 208 | 41 |
| Basingstoke Bison | 54 | 16 | 33 | 5 | 172 | 222 | 37 |
| Hull Stingrays | 54 | 13 | 34 | 7 | 119 | 197 | 33 |

## Playoffs

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final | Final |
| 1 | Coventry Blaze | 4 | | | | | | |
| 8 | Edinburgh Capitals | 2 | | | | | | |
| 8 | Edinburgh Capitals | 2 | 1 | Coventry Blaze | 4 | | | |
| | | | 5 | Newcastle Vipers | 2 | | | |
| 4 | Belfast Giants | 6 | 5 | Newcastle Vipers | 2 | | | |
| 5 | Newcastle Vipers | 7 | | | | | | |
| 5 | Newcastle Vipers | 7 | | | | 1 | Coventry Blaze | 0 |
| | | | | | | 2 | Sheffield Steelers | 2 |
| 2 | Sheffield Steelers | 9 | | | | | | | 2 | Sheffield Steelers | 2 |
| 7 | Manchester Phoenix | 8 | | | | | | |
| 7 | Manchester Phoenix | 8 | 2 | Sheffield Steelers | 2 | | | |
| | | | 6 | Cardiff Devils | 1 | | | |
| 3 | Nottingham Panthers | 6 | 6 | Cardiff Devils | 1 | | | |
| 6 | Cardiff Devils | 7 | | | | | | |

## Footnotes

* ↑ "The Official Site of the GMB Nottingham Panthers Ice Hockey Team". Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
* ↑ "bmibaby Elite Ice Hockey League News - bmibaby Elite League confirm 2007/08 competitions". 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
| Preceded by2006–07 EIHL season | EIHL seasons | Succeeded by2008–09 EIHL season |