The Yorkton Terriers picked up a key point, but gave up 3-0 and 4-1 leads against Kindersley as they fell 5-4 (SO) to the Klippers on Sunday night.
Kyle McLeod, Zak Majkowski and Jamie Vlanich all had a goal and an assist, while Sam Rockwell also found the net.
The Terriers out-shot the Klippers 41-22 despite the SO loss.
The single point, coupled with Battleford having a big third period comeback in Estevan, leaves the Terriers 6 points up on Estevan, both with 8 games remaining, one being head to head (in EST Feb 8). The Terriers also have the tie-breaker vs the Bruins, so they're essentially 7 points up. It's probably too early for this kind of talk, but the Terriers' magic # to clinch a Top 3 spot is 5 (any combo of 5 Terrier wins or Estevan losses). How do you figure that? Basically, if Estevan wins all 8 of their remaining games (finishing with a maximum of 67 points), Yorkton would need to go 5-3 in their last 8 to tie. If EST goes 7-1, YOR would need to be 4-4, and so on.
Yorkton's now 2 points up on 3rd place Melville. The Mils have 3 games in hand on both the Terriers and Bruins. If the Bruins run the table, Melville would need to go 6-5 in their last 11 to tie, but the Mils DON'T have the tie-breaker against the Bruins, and would have to finish with MORE points. But like Mils' Coach/GM Jamie Fiesel said on the Post Game Show in Melfort on Friday, "We just have to win. We have the games in hand, if we take care of what we can take care of, we won't have to watch what everyone else is doing."
Next Up For:
Melville: Tue vs Flin Flon
Yorkton: Wed vs Flin Flon
Estevan: Thu @ Kindersley
---------------
The Swan Valley Stampeders erased a 2-0 deficit in Winkler, and led 3-2 and 4-3, before falling 5-4 in a shootout to the Flyers.
Beau Taylor and Colin Baudry each had a goal and an assist for the Stamps. Dylan Reimer and Brett Charette added the others.
Former Stampeders Anthony Nobili and Jesse Enns both had a goal and a helper for Winkler.
Goaltender Jayson Argue got banged up Friday in Steinbach, and didn't play Saturday or Sunday. No word yet on the nature of the injury or the extent, but the Stamps' MVP has been key in their playoff push, and they can ill afford to lose him long-term. That said, Alcide Grenier made 41/45 saves Sunday in Winkler and filled in admirably.
Still a gutsy 3/6 points on the road trip, and they played Sunday's game without Argue, Tony Partridge, Landon Peel and Colton Magwood.
The Stamps are back in action Friday at home against Steinbach, before hosting Dauphin on Saturday. Swan finishes a season-changing January, going 9-2-0-1 in 12 games, collecting 19 of a possible 24 points.
The single point in Winkler puts Swan 7 points up on Wayway for a playoff spot (and I've been so focused on that race I almost didn't notice they're just 7 back of OCN for 2nd with a game in hand, and 3 head to head). The Wolverines do have 2 games in hand on the Stamps, and 4 head to head meetings with Swan coming up in February.
Speaking of tie-breakers... the first one is head-to-head wins, and unless Wayway wins all four remaining meetings, the Stamps will have the tie-breaker against the Wolverines, having won four of the first five.
**How's this for goofy/crazy? The Stamps (21-22-7) or Wolverines (18-24-6) first round playoff opponent might have fewer points than Dauphin's (34-12-5) first round opponent. Right now OCN has a similar record as the 5th place team in the Addison (Saints), and the 5th place team in the Addison will likely cross over and play the Kings in Round 1. Right now, Wayway has 11 fewer points than the Saints.
No comments:
Post a Comment