Mils (22-24-2-1) @ Terriers (22-25-3-1)

Odds are, and I'd put my money on it, the Mils and Terriers will start the Best of Five Sherwood Conference Survivor Series against eachother on Friday, February 26th. So why don't we call this the "unofficial" start of a "Best of Seven"... just three weeks early!

It's a huge weekend for these two teams, as they continue to jostle for position and try to out-do the other for 4th place and home ice in the elimination series. They've exchanged position in the standings, I would guess 4 times in the last week or so, with Yorkton taking a one point lead into the weekend, and also having played 2 more games.

Season Series
The "Parks Cup", which goes to the winner of the Yorkton-Melville season series, will once again come down to the final weekend home-and-home. The 8 game season series was split 4-4 last year, and Melville retained it for a third straight year with the tie-breaker being goals for and against. What it might also come down to this season, is whether or not the neutral site game at the Showcase counts. Yorkton won 4-3 in North Battleford in late November. I don't see why it shouldn't count, but I heard a rumour it doesn't. I'll try to find that out before puck drop! Here are each team's record against eachother so far.

Counting Showcase
Melville: 4-3-0-0 (8 points)
Yorkton: 3-2-2-0 (8 points)

Not counting Showcase
Melville: 4-2-0-0 (8 points)
Yorkton: 2-2-2-0 (6 points)

Now that I look at it though, if Melville wins even once, it should be theirs. They'd be no worse than 5-4-0-0 (10 pts) while a split would leave Yorkton at 4-3-2-0 (10 points) (counting Showcase), and if it comes to that I would think the tie-breaker would be wins.

But what if it's a split, and Yorkton loses in overtime and Melville loses in regulation? The Terriers would then be 4-2-3-0 (11 pts) while Melville would be 5-4-0-0 (10 pts). The Mils would have more wins, but Yorkton would have more points!

Too much math, and really, it's only for bragging rights. These two teams are more worried about 4th place than any regular season trophy they could win.

- Whoever wins tonight's game will officially clinch a playoff spot. They will both have their playoff post season tickets punched if they split, OR if Estevan loses a game over the weekend.

Head-to-Head Stats

- Still no Torey Stott for the Yorkton Terriers. Stott's scheduled to return to Yorkton and get back to skating very soon (if not today), but is not expected back in the lineup for several days still. He still leads the team in goals (15), and has more than one-third of them (6) against Melville in the 5 games he's played against the Mils.

- Jordan Menke's taken over the team lead in points (14g-22a-36p) for the Terriers, and leads the club with 9 points (1g-7a) against Melville.

- Cody Zubko's played 4 games against Melville and has 4g-1a-5p against them, while Brent Struble has 3g-2a-5p in 5 games.

- Yorkton and Melville have been involved in a couple high scoring games this year, 8-6 and 7-6, both in Melville, and both Melville wins, and thus Terrier goaltenders don't have their best numbers against the Mils. Devin Peters has a 3.42 GAA and .877 %, while Luke Boechler's GAA is 4.58, along with a .874% vs Melville. Boechler was supposed to start in Wednesday's home game against Estevan, but fell ill, which meant Peters started and was backed up by Yorkton Harvest G Kale Thomson. Devin made 24/25 saves in a 5-1 win.

- As for the Millionaires, it looks like Justin Hollinger has taken over from Kale Dolinski as "Terrier Killer." Dolinski earned the nickname after scoring clutch goal after clutch goal against Yorkton in his 3 year SJHL career, and this season, Hollinger's amassed 7g-4a-11p in 7 games vs the Terriers. Yowza! Michael Jordan (3g-4a) and Logan Herauf (2g-5a) have 7 pts each, playing in all 7 games, while D Jordan Reeve has put up 1g-5a-6p in just 4 head to head meetings.

- A handful of Millionaires will be playing in their first Highway 10 rivalry game tonight, and they've all had a big impact since coming to Melville. F Colton Kennedy (7 games... 4g-4a-8p), F Cody Gross (4 games... 2g-3a-5p), D Tyson Newell (6 games... 1g-1a-2p), and G Deszi Wiens (5-3-0-0, 3.49, .900%)

- As mentioned, Wiens hasn't seen Yorkton yet this season, while Zach Rakochy, who hasn't started a game since December 11th, has a 5.08 GAA and .869% against Yortkon this season.

- Mils' leading scorer Logan Herauf (24g-31a-55p in 49 games) has 6 game point streak coming into this one (5g-3a-8p).

Behind the Bench
Trent Cassan will go up against Jamie Fiesel for the first time, after Ed Zawatsky was relieved of his duties as Yorkton Coach/GM early this week. Fiesel has a great clip about his relationship with Zawatsky on and off the ice on this week's Melville Coach's Show.

Special Teams
Yorkton's powerplay is second last in the league at 15.5%, but against Melville it's an eye-popping 12-for-34, or 35.3%. Their PK got knocked out of top spot by La Ronge, but it's second best at 85.4%. The Mils' PP is 8th at 18.1%, PK has struggled a bit, sitting at 77.4%, 10th best in the SJHL.

Here's hoping we see two good crowds and two beauty games this weekend.

Our overnight guy Ryan Gilbert may have said it best the other day when he said on the air, "I'm gonna be there I don't care what anyone says. And I'll have my popcorn... AND my pop."

Follow Ryan's lead.

We're on the air with tonight's game, starting with the Pre Game Show at 7:20, Play By Play at 7:30 from Farrell Agencies Arena.