Wednesday's results, and what they mean....
Brandon beat Moose Jaw, while Calgary beat Edmonton and Regina beat Saskatoon. For the three conference leaders, this basically means that Saskatoon has been eliminated from the running for #1. They can not catch Calgary anymore, so at best they can catch Brandon for the East division title and #2 seed. But that is doubtful as well since they are three points back of the Wheaties with two games remaining. In all probability the Blades are going to be #3 seed. Brandon can still catch the Hitmen but that's another 3-back-with-2-games-remaining deal. The Hitmen can lock up first in the East with two points, or one lost point by the Wheaties.
BTW, that Calgary/Brandon race is also for first overall. They are the only two teams left in that race.
In Prince Albert, Swift Current beat the Raiders and that ends the Raiders playoff chances. So, all 16 playoff teams are now known. For the Broncos, the win - combined with Moose Jaw's loss - moves them to within one point of the Warriors with both teams having two games left. The best part is that those two games are a home & home head-to-head set, so they will get to decide themselves who finishes 7th and who gets 8th. Either way one of them will play Calgary and one will play Brandon in the first round. Barring a Brandon collapse to Saskatoon of course.
And, Kootenay beat Red Deer in a key head-to-head battle for the 4-5-6 spots in the East. The loss for Red Deer means that they can no longer finish 4th in the conference; that race is solely between Medicine Hat and Kootenay now. The Ice can finish no lower than 5th, while the Tigers can still finish in any of the three spots.
(Actually, the Rebels CAN still finish ahead of the Ice but it involves winning both their games in regulation while the Ice lose both theirs in regulation, and the Rebels must score something like 45 more goals than the Ice do. So it's completely ridiculous.)
In the West, Chilliwack beat Prince George while Tri-City beat Seattle. The Ams pull two points up on Everett again, with the Silvertips again having a game in hand. For first place, the Tips need 3 points from their last 3 games, plus an additional number of points equal to what the Ams get from their last two games. Spokane, meanwhile, can also get first place by winning their last three games in regulation and having Everett not get more than three points total.
For Chilliwack, they are now tied with Kamloops for 7th/8th, both with identical 32 win records. Kelowna is two points ahead and all three teams have two games remaining.
2 comments:
I thought the Season series was the tiebreaker?
The first tiebreaker is wins. In order for the teams to finish tied in points, they will both have to have 41 wins, so that's a tie as well.
Second tiebreaker is most points in the head-to-head meetings. In that case, they will each have four wins from the eight games, and both will have one OT or SO loss, so both have nine points there. Another tie.
Third tiebreaker is goal differential, calculated as GF - GA. Right now Kootenay's number is +34 and Red Deer's number is -11, so you can see how Kootenay is going to win that tiebreaker pretty easily since Red Deer isn't going to outscore the Ice by 45 goals in the last two games of the season.
So, there is no possible way for Red Deer to catch Kootenay in teh standings.
You can find the WHL's tiebreaker rules here: http://whl.ca/whl-tie-breaking-procedure-p141315
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