Spokane won tonight's biggest game, a head-to-head matchup with Tri-City. The Chiefs are battling the Ams for first place in the U.S. division, the Western conference, AND first overall in the league, and this win moves the Chiefs back into a tie for top spot in all three races. They are tied with both Vancouver and the Americans with 98 points, but hold one game-in-hand on the Americans and two on the Giants. For the stats sticklers out there, I know that technically the Americans are still in first place by virtue of having the most wins, but those extra games could be the key to the Chiefs taking some or all of those crowns.
I think the race for first place in the Central (and Eastern conference) has pretty much ended with Lethbridge's failure, again, to make up ground on the Hitmen with one of their games-in-hand tonight. They are now eight points back with only six games remaining. The Canes have lost three straight now and have basically been reduced to having to win out the season and hope Calgary doesn't win more than one more game. There's the big four-point meeting between the two in Calgary on Sunday but a Hitmen win in Medicine Hat tomorrow night paired with a Lethbridge loss in Red Deer would end the race and render that game meaningless. Lethbridge should probably turn their focus to not getting caught from behind for the #3 seed...actually, they've already lost that spot. Kootenay is in 3rd now by one point over the Canes.
Similarily, Brandon and Moose Jaw dealt themselves serious blows to their chances of catching Regina for first place in the East (and #2 seed in the conference) by losing to weaker teams tonight while the Pats won. It's getting more and more difficult to see the Pats not getting that #1 spot in the division....either one of those chasing teams needs to rip off a bunch of wins to close out the season or they can start gassing up the bus to open the playoffs on the road.
Updated magic numbers, schedules, standings, blah blah below.....
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