| Kelly Cup playoffs | |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Dates: | June 7 – July 2, 2021 |
| Num Teams: | 8 |
| Winners: | Fort Wayne Komets |
| Second: | South Carolina Stingrays |
| Stat Leader Title: | Scoring leader(s) |
| Stat Leader Player: | Anthony Nellis (Fort Wayne) |
| Stat Leader Value: | 13 points |
| Award Title: | MVP |
| Award: | Stephen Harper |
| Next Season: | 2022 |
The 2021 Kelly Cup playoffs of the ECHL began on June 7 following the conclusion of the 2020–21 ECHL regular season, and ended on July 2 with the Fort Wayne Komets winning their first Kelly Cup over the South Carolina Stingrays in four games.[1]
The qualification and with the top four teams from each conference at the end of the regular season.[2] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 14 of the 26 member teams participated in the season, the playoff field was cut from 16 teams to eight, and there were no divisions. As the start of the season was delayed and extended to later in the year than normal, each playoff series is a best-of-five tournament, down from the previous 2019 playoffs and planned 2020 playoffs that consisted of best-of-seven series.
Due to the postseason being pushed later into the year than typical, both the South Carolina Stingrays and Wichita Thunder were forced to play home games out of their practice rinks over scheduling conflicts with their normal home arenas.[3] [4]
After the regular season, eight teams qualify for the playoffs. The Wichita Thunder were the first team to qualify during the regular season on May 16.[5] Due to the imbalanced scheduling during the pandemic, teams were seeded by points percentage.[6]
Final seeds and points percentages:[7]
Final results.[8]
Note: Italics signify games to be played only if necessary.
These are the top ten skaters based on points.[9]
| Player | Team | GP | G | A | Pts | +/– | PIM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 8 | 5 | 13 | +3 | 8 | |||
| 12 | 6 | 7 | 13 | +3 | 0 | |||
| 13 | 4 | 8 | 12 | +2 | 0 | |||
| 13 | 3 | 9 | 12 | −4 | 6 | |||
| 13 | 6 | 5 | 11 | +2 | 6 | |||
| 11 | 3 | 8 | 11 | +6 | 0 | |||
| 9 | 2 | 9 | 11 | +5 | 4 | |||
| 13 | 5 | 5 | 10 | +1 | 6 | |||
| 13 | 4 | 6 | 10 | +3 | 18 | |||
| 13 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 0 | 6 |
This is a combined table of the top five goaltenders based on goals against average and the top five goaltenders based on save percentage, with at least 240 minutes played as of June 30. The table is sorted by GAA, and the criteria for inclusion are bolded.[10]
| Player | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | SA | GA | GAA | SV% | SO | TOI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 154 | 11 | 2.44 | 0.929 | 1 | 271 | |||
| 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 119 | 11 | 2.74 | 0.908 | 0 | 241 | |||
| 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 152 | 14 | 2.79 | 0.908 | 0 | 301 | |||
| 13 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 399 | 37 | 2.93 | 0.907 | 1 | 757 | |||
| 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 131 | 15 | 3.28 | 0.885 | 0 | 274 |