Calgary thumped Saskatoon 6-1, a result which almost certainly ended any chance Saskatoon had of finishing as the #1 seed in the East. They are now six points back of the Hitmen with only four games to play, and will lose the wins tiebreaker to the Hitmen so they'd need to finish with more points than Calgary. Not happening. The Blades will have to try to catch Brandon for first in the East and the #2 seed instead.
As for Calgary, they can wrap up first place overall in the league with two more wins in their last three games. They play Edmonton twice and Red Deer once.
Meanwhile, Brandon beat Prince Albert so they are now three points ahead of the Blades for that East division lead. The Blades do have one game in hand though that they can use to cut the lead to one point.
And with the Raiders loss, you can all but turn out the lights at the Art Hauser Center....the Raiders can now do no better than tie for the last playoff spot with the Broncos, which would mean a one-game playoff like they had with Edmonton last year. But even that requires the Raiders to win their last three games while having the Broncos lose their last three in regulation. The Raiders have two of their three against Saskatoon.....again, "not happening".
Finally in the East, Medicine Hat beat Edmonton, which vaults the Tigers into the #4 spot in the Eastern standings. They are one point up on Kootenay and three points up on Red Deer, with the Ice having one game in hand and the Rebels having two. That race is probably going to come right down to next Sunday to determine who finishes where.
To the West.....Tri-City lost to Seattle, which ends any chance the Americans had at #1 overall, and puts them at a disadvantage to Everett when it comes to winning the U.S. division. They are still tied in points but the Silvertips now have a game in hand. Everett has no shot at #1 overall either though, so that honor (along with home ice in the WHL final should they get that far) is going to go to an East team again this year.
And lastly, Chilliwack lost while Kamloops won, which puts the Bruins four points back of the Blazers in the race for 7th/8th in the conference. The Bruins do have two games in hand but they lose the tiebreaker to the Blazers so they need to make up at least one more point than just winning the games-in-hand. It's looking more and more like the Bruins will finish #8. On the bright side, #8 means they'll finally get to play somebody other than Vancouver in the playoffs....
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