AYHL’s Recreational (In-House) League has 4 age divisions:  10U (Squirt), 12U (Peewee), 14U (Bantam) and 16U/18U (Midget).  As part of the CRHL (Colorado Recreational Hockey League), AYHL plays associations from around Denver including Arvada, Colorado Jr. Eagles, Denver University, Greeley, Hyland Hills, Littleton, Northern Colorado and Summit. 

The mission of CRHL is to emphasize skill development with a recreational component.  The goal of CRHL is to encourage a FUN environment in a recreational skill development setting.  The CRHL is a tiered program to create like competition.  The two tiers are Experienced (Red) and Intermediate (White). 

Teams are tiered as directed by the CRHL and the association hockey directors.

Each team will have one team practice a week and 1 skill skate every other week.

Each AYHL team will also participate in the Mile High Meltdown over President's Day weekend (tournament fee is included in the league fee).

An 18U Sunday Games Only option was added to Arapahoe starting in 2022.  Players do not have practices - they only play games on Sunday.  Teams participate in the CRHL competitive Red division which includes checking.  Minimum of 15 games plus one playoff game.

Due to lack of association interest, the CRHL has recently decided to not offer the 18U Competitive (checking) division.  Unfortunately AYHL will not have a Sunday ONLY team this year.

Season Length - August/September - February; 15 regular season games

Single Elimination Playoffs - February 23rd - February 25th

Evaluations - 2 day evaluation in August or September depending on age level; group assignments for evaluations will be sent after each registration deadline

18U (2005 - 2008) - August 18 & 19; Sundays Only - August 15 & 16
14U (2009 - 2010) - August 25 & 26
12U (2011 - 2012) - September 8 & 9
10U (2013 - 2014) - September 22 & 24

Weekly Practice - shared ice; Tuesday, Thursday or Friday (time slot will be set once teams are formed)

Skills Session - Bi-weekly on Mondays (10U - 14U)

Weekly Games - 1 per weekend on average

Tournaments - Mile High Meltdown included in registration fee; max of 2 other in-state tournaments

The CRHL is a youth hockey league that emphasizes skills development with a recreational component.  The goal of the CRHL is to encourage a FUN environment in a recreational skill development setting that gives all players an opportunity to play games.  ​The CRHL is a non check league. 

League Structure

The CRHL is a tiered program to create like competition.  Division tiers include Red (Experienced), White (Intermediate) and Blue (Novice/Beginner).

CRHL is divided into a Fall and Winter Season.  Fall season begins in late September (after evaluations) and runs up to Thanksgiving Break.  After Thanksgiving break, teams are placed in tiers within their division to create like competition.

Game Format

10U, 12U, 14U and 18U - 5 minute warm-up, 1 minute between periods.  1st and 2nd periods are run-time 15 minute periods, 3rd period is 12 minute stop time.  Teams are allowed one 30-second timeout per game.

Mercy Rule - There shall be no run clock due to goal differential in league games.  If the score reaches a level that may be embarrassing, both coaches must agree that a run clock is allowable before the scorekeeper runs the clock.

Curfew - All games have a 1 hour curfew, except playoffs and championship games.  When the remaining game time equals the time left to curfew, the clock shall be kept running.