## 1 Introduction  
Ice hockey is a fast and complex team sport with high physical demands including strength, core stability, speed, postural stability, and endurance. The ability to recover quickly and specific on ice skills (e.g., change of direction, skating/shooting with body contact, accelerations, decelerations) are necessary for a successful ice hockey player. The described complexity of these physical demands and the multidimensionality of match performance are also major challenges for the development of off- and on-ice performance diagnostics, although the on-ice performance diagnostic is most critical.  
In ice hockey, a number of general (e.g., general endurance tests, strength and speed tests) [1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7], semi-specific, and sport-specific tests (specific strength, on ice with and without puck endurance, and speed tests), which imitate typical movement requirements of the ice hockey match, exist [5; 8; 9; 10; 11]. While general tests tend to be used to assess the expression of performance prerequisites, specific tests should be designed in relation to match performance or consist of actions relevant to the match.  
Current standardized tests often do not provide enough information regarding their relevance to a match. Data collected across various leagues and in a standardized manner would allow for a stronger and more sufficient scientific examination (validity, reliability, reference data) of on-ice and off-ice performance diagnostics. Then, a systematic use of performance tests applied in short time intervals could help in the evaluation of training effects. In our search of current research, we observed a lack of studies that use match performance as the gold standard to prove and validate on- or off-ice performance tests and parameters [5; 12; 13; 14].  
The usefulness of performance diagnostic measures depends partially on the quality of the specific diagnostic with respect to its viability and validity. The results and findings of the performance diagnostic should be useful for the coaches and physiotherapists to improve the match performance of each player. In this context and based on our experiences in sports such as ice hockey [15], handball [16; 17], basketball [18], and soccer [19], comparison of the assessments used in relation to the match statistics can positively contribute to acceptance and continuity of these tests, as immediate practical benefits can be visible. The acceptance of performance diagnostic measures also depends on its relation to the head coach's philosophies and provides information and recommendations that can easily be implemented into the athletes' daily training program. This \"transfer\" is mainly the job of the performance diagnosticians and sport scientists involved and is complicated by the highly complex physical requirements of ice hockey. It should be noted in this regard that no on-ice or off-ice test can provide 100% explanation of variance concerning the match performance, but we must try to fill the gap as much as possible.  
Based on our experience we recommend completing complex on-ice performance diagnostic tests at three times during the season: preseason, approximately eight weeks later (preseason, +8 weeks), and before play-offs or off-season begin. Off-ice diagnostics (e.g., isolated strength, sprint or endurance tests) and isolated skill tests should be only used as a supplement to the complex on-ice testing.  
This investigation was motivated by the general lack of a complex on-ice performance diagnostic such as the ice hockey-specific complex test (IHCT) and the missing scientifically proven link between (on-ice) test and match performance. For this purpose, we used a developed match performance score (MPS) as the \"gold standard\" [5] and an independent sample of German 3 rd league male ice hockey players. Based on the first published findings [5], we hypothesized that actions with the puck under fatigue conditions and the ability to recover in the shortest possible time would provide the highest explained variance for match performance.