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2009–10 GET-ligaen season

2009–10 GET-ligaen season
League GET-ligaen
Sport Ice hockey
Number of teams 9
(10, but one folded)
TV partner(s) TV 2 Sport
Regular-season winner Vålerenga
Champions Stavanger Oilers
Season MVP  Tomi Pöllänen (FIN)
Top scorer  Tomi Pöllänen (FIN)
Promoted to First Division Rosenborg
Playoffs
Playoffs MVP  Robert Bina (USA)
GET-ligaen seasons

The 2009–10 GET-ligaen was the 71st season of Norway's premier ice hockey league, Eliteserien (known as GET-ligaen for sponsorship reasons). The regular season began play on 12 September 2009 and concluded on 2 March 2010, with Vålerenga claiming their twenty-seventh League Championship after defeating Lillehammer 2–1 on 26 February. Vålerenga won the league twelve points ahead of the Sparta Warriors, who were defending champions. The league was contested by ten teams until Comet folded in October 2009, leaving nine teams to finish the regular season.

The playoffs to determine the 2010 Norwegian Ice Hockey Champions began on 4 March and ended on 19 April 2010. The Stavanger Oilers defeated Vålerenga by 4 games to 2 in the Final to win their first ever title.

In June 2009, the Norwegian Ice Hockey Association (NIHF) denied Comet entry into the league for the 2009–10 season due to the club's poor financial situation. This decision was subsequently reversed after an appeal by Comet. Less than two months later and shortly before the start of the season, the tax authorities in Halden successfully filed a bankruptcy claim against the club, the result being that they went into administration on 4 September. Comet had managed to pay roughly 1.1 million of the 2 million kroner they owed to the tax authorities at that point, but the district court felt that the club were unable to guarantee that the remaining debts would be paid off. Nonetheless, the administrator in charge of the bankruptcy suggested that there was a possibility of Comet being rescued, and the NIHF reaffirmed, amid protests from the other nine clubs, that Comet would be allowed to play in the top flight.

The possibility of coming out of administration rested on Comet's ability to earn income from home games, but due to an ongoing redevelopment of their home arena, the municipally owned Halden Ishall, the club were forced to play all their fixtures in September as away games. When an application for use of the arena as of October was denied because the building did not yet meet the fire safety code, the administrator declared on 2 October that the running of the club would have to discontinue. A last-ditch attempt by a group of local investors to save the club could not remedy the fact that Halden Ishall remained unavailable, and Comet folded on 6 October. This was the third bankruptcy in Norwegian top tier ice hockey in three years. All results involving Comet were annulled and a sixth round robin was introduced, bringing the total number of games per team up to 48.


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