With two weeks to go, the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League regular season is headed for one of its most intense finishes in recent years.
Three teams are jockeying for either first place (and a first round bye in the playoffs) or a favourable playoff seeding. And the Comox Valley Glacier Kings are right in the middle of the mix.
The Icemen (31-8-0-1) boast the league’s best record and control their destiny in that if they win their remaining four games they cannot be caught for first place overall.
However, the Victoria Cougars (27-8-0-2) and Peninsula Panthers (27-10-0-0) both have three games in hand on the Yetis, meaning that every game looms large as the teams head down the stretch.
The Glacier Kings played the Islanders in Kerry Park last night, with result unavailable at press time. This Saturday is a huge four-pointer for the Yetis as they host the Cougars in a 7:30 p.m. start at Comox Valley Sports Centre Arena No. 1.
The Icemen are riding a six-game winning streak while the Capital City Cats have lost their last four. However, Comox Valley coach Jim MacLean notes the Cougars have been outshooting their opponents but just not scoring goals. So while the puck pundits pore over possible regular season outcomes, MacLean said his team will just take things one game at a time while keeping an eye on the big picture.
That said, MacLean acknowledges that tomorrow night’s match with Victoria is “obviously the most important game of the year” for his team as far as final positioning goes. “Each game you play becomes sort of the most important one, but that is the big one,” he said of the Cougars’ visit.
The good news this week is that goalie Cameron Waddington is back in the lineup after suffering a concussion last week. “Both our goalies are healthy and we don’t have any other injuries,” MacLean said. Waddington is third in the league with 14 wins while James Davison is 6-0 in a solid back-up role.
sports@comoxvalleyrecord.com
