Wednesday's games

Six games on the schedule last night and they had some very big implications on the playoff races....

 - Moose Jaw beat Brandon in a shootout. The Warriors are going to finish as the #2 seed in the East no matter what so the game meant little to them, but the lost point could hurt the Wheat Kings' chances of moving out of their current 8th place position. Brandon finishes with two games against Regina and now they must win both of those games to have any chance of finishing above 7th place.

 - Lethbridge upset Calgary 5-2, which means the Hitmen squandered their game-in-hand on the Tigers. Calgary remains two points back of the Tigers in the race for 3rd place, with both teams having two games remaining. To get 3rd, Calgary now needs to win both their remaining games (both against the Ice) and have the Tigers lose at least one of their remaining two.

 - Regina beat Prince Albert, vaulting the Pats over the Blades and Ice and into 5th place in the East.

 - Edmonton beat Kootenay in overtime; the win means the Oil Kings are now first overall in the league by one point over Tri-City and three points over Portland, with all three teams having two games left. It definitely looks like Portland is dropping out of the race - if Edmonton wins even one of their remaining two games, Portland cannot catch the Oil Kings.

For Kootenay, the lost point (coupled with Regina's win) means the Ice drop to 7th place now in the big four-team race for 5th through 8th in the East.

 - Spokane beat Kamloops 6-4, and with the loss for the Blazers their hopes for #1 in the conference and #1 overall both died. They can no longer catch Tri-City and so the Blazers will be the #2 seed in the first round. Their challenge now is to find a way to finish ahead of Portland (who have a 3 point lead with both teams having 2 games remaining) so that they can retain that #2 seed in the second round.

For the Chiefs, the win moves them into a tie with the Giants for the #4 seed. Giants have more wins and so they retain the #4 spot though. Both teams have two games left.


 - Kelowna beat Everett, meaning the Silvertips squandered a chance to move further ahead of Seattle in the race for playoff spots in the West. For Kelowna, it was another meaningless game as they simply wait to play the #3 seed in the first round, whoever that may be.


 - Victoria shocked Portland 4-3; for the Winterhawks the loss comes pretty close to killing their chances at #1 overall (see above notes for Edmonton game) and just to get #1 in the West they're now probably going to have to win both their remaining games and hope Tri-City gets 1 point or less from their last two games. So it looks a lot grimmer for the Hawks today....they look like they're ticketed for the #3 spot right now which means they would draw Kamloops in the second round.

For Victoria, obviously the win is huge, huge, huge for their playoff hopes. They move ahead of Everett into the #7 spot with the win and now hold a 3 point lead over Seattle (Prince George can no longer catch the Royals) in the race for the playoff spot. Seattle does have two games in hand on the Royals but the 3 point lead means Seattle has to win both of those games in order to pass Victoria and knock the Royals out.

And even though they didn't play in the game, the Victoria win has some meaning for the Cougars: Prince George can now only tie Everett for the last playoff spot, not claim one outright. So the Cougars are now looking at playing a tiebreaker game as their best possible outcome. To make the playoffs, the Cougars now need to win both their last two games against Kamloops, have Everett lose both their last two games in regulation, and have Seattle beat Everett but lose their other two games in regulation. That would create a three way tie for the last playoff spot. As I understand the league's tiebreaker rules, Everett would be eliminated due to fewest wins, and Prince George and Seattle would play the tiebreaker.