CHL Coast-to-Coast: Playoff picture taking shape
Wednesday March 11, 2015
By Josh Sweetland/CHL
Just 14 unclaimed playoff spots remain across the Canadian Hockey League as many teams have already begun looking toward the postseason with just over a week remaining on the regular season schedule.
A pair of OHL teams in the Kingston Frontenacs and Kitchener Rangers along with three QMJHL clubs in the Charlottetown Islanders, Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and Halifax Mooseheads secured their playoff destinies over the weekend.
Tight battles abound across the country as the WHL features the Swift Current Broncos trying to hold off the Moose Jaw Warriors in the East Division. Having lost six straight games in regulation, the Broncos are holding on to a playoff spot by two points with six games remaining on their schedule. Both Wild Card positions in the Eastern Conference are occupied by Central Division teams in the Kootenay Ice and Edmonton Oil Kings, meaning Swift Current and Moose Jaw will have to either finish among the East Division’s top three clubs or miss the playoffs entirely. Fortunately for the Broncos, the Warriors dropped a 5-3 decision against the Brandon Wheat Kings on Tuesday.
The aforementioned WHL Central Division is among the most competitive in the CHL, with three clubs still vying for top spot. The Medicine Hat Tigers, Calgary Hitmen and Red Deer Rebels all have at least 80 points on the season. The top two of the three clubs will claim home ice advantage in the first round as Medicine Hat and Calgary currently sit tied with 85 points. The Red Deer Rebels have won three straight though and with 80 points, are making things interesting entering the final week of the season.
In the WHL’s Western Conference, the Prince George Cougars face the Kamloops Blazers in a big game on Wednesday. The Cougars are currently holding down the third playoff spot in the BC Division, four points ahead of the Blazers who are on the outside looking in. Kamloops is two points behind the Tri-City Americans for the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
The Ontario Hockey League sees the bottom two spots in either conference still unclaimed. After the Kingston Frontenacs clinched an Eastern Conference playoff spot over the weekend, three teams in the Belleville Bulls, Peterborough Petes and Mississauga Steelheads are battling for the remaining two spots.
Ninth place Mississauga trails Peterborough by five points entering the weekend with five games left on their schedule. With remaining opponents in Barrie, Oshawa and North Bay, the Steelheads have their work cut out for them if they hope to return to the playoffs this spring. Mississauga has seen favourable results on the out of town scoreboard of late though, with both Belleville and Peterborough dropping their last two decisions.
The OHL Western Conference sees three clubs separated by two points battling for the eighth and final spot. The seventh placed Sarnia Sting are two points away from clinching a playoff berth, leaving Saginaw, Windsor and Plymouth to duel it out for their survival beyond March 22.
The Saginaw Spirit currently hold down eighth in the West with 53 points, but have also played one more game than both Windsor and Plymouth. The Spitfires will host the Guelph Storm on Thursday before visits to Erie and Niagara on Saturday and Sunday. The Plymouth Whalers, who enter the last week of their final OHL season before a move to Flint to begin the 2015-16 campaign, will visit Sault Ste. Marie on Friday before a crucial home-and-home set with the Saginaw Spirit on Saturday and Sunday. The Whalers are trying to extend an impressive run of 23 straight playoff appearances dating back to the 1991-92 season. Through six meetings, Michigan state rivals Plymouth and Saginaw have split their season series with three wins apiece.
The Drummondville Voltigeurs will battle for their playoff hopes this weekend in the QMJHL. Drummondville sits six points behind Chicoutimi, Gatineau and Victoriaville for the 16th and final playoff position. With five games remaining, three of which come against Gatineau and Victoriaville, the Voltigeurs still have a fighting chance to make it into the postseason. Drummondville visits Gatineau on Friday night before another meeting against the Olympiques in Drummondville next Friday. The Voltigeurs will close out their season in Victoriaville on Saturday March 21.
The battle for home ice advantage is ongoing in the middle of the QMJHL pack, with the ninth place Saint John Sea Dogs just one point behind the Sherbrooke Phoenix entering the weekend. The eighth place Phoenix hold down the final home ice advantage spot, with the Val-d’Or Foreurs and Baie-Comeau Drakkar just two points ahead of them.
The race to the top of the QMJHL standings is also a heated one, with three clubs vying for supremacy. The Rimouski Oceanic and Moncton Wildcats are currently tied for first place with 89 points while the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada sit in second with 87. Rimouski will visit Baie-Comeau on Saturday and Sunday while Moncton hosts Saint John and Acadie-Bathurst. Blainville-Boisbriand and recently signed Philadelphia Flyers prospect Danick Martel will host Rouyn-Noranda and Chicoutimi.
Be sure to tune into Sportsnet this weekend to catch late season CHL action. On Sportsnet Friday Night Hockey, the Kitchener Rangers host the Guelph Storm in a Midwest Division rivalry between two playoff-bound clubs separated by six points at 7:00pm on Sportsnet East, Ontario and Pacific. The scene shifts to the QMJHL on Sunday afternoon when the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies visit the Sherbrooke Phoenix at 3:00pm on Sportsnet East, Ontario, West, Pacific and TVA Sports.