After Beaverlodge continued their never-give-up attitude last night against the Jr. Canucks, who at one point held a 4-1 lead, forcing OT and Riley Muise's OT heroics to secure a three point advantage against the FSJ Huskies, who have a three point lead... nothing is safe yet for Dawson Creek.
Enough commas?
Thanks to Evan Weaver's pair of goals, Colter MacLean's three assists, the Canucks were able to come out with a huge victory to try and secure the home-ice playoff advantage for the Jrs.
Here's the thing about the Huskies, though, with their three games in hand. Two of those are almost guaranteed losses against the Peace River Navigators and the Whitecourt Wolverines. They have two games against the GP Wheelers who've shown offensive flair in the latter stages of this year (and who have locked up third place), and one against the aforementioned Beaverlodge Blades.
That said, the worst the Canucks can finish is fourth, guaranteeing a first round home-ice advantage in the playoffs. Thing is, if they fall to fourth and advance past the first round, they're lining up against the Whitecourt Wolverines who will almost assuredly take care of them in the second round, barring a massive collapse.
This season, that doesn't make a difference.
Next season, however....
There's rumour that the Lloydminster Bobcats of the AJHL will be bought and relocated to Whitecourt. The Wolverines, sadly, do not have a lot of regular season fan-base due to their recent dominance in the NWJHL. But with an AJHL team, a lot of their talent stands to migrate upwards to Jr. A hockey, meaning that all of a sudden Whitecourt becomes a team you can beat in Jr. B.
This is FANTASTIC for the NWJHL. All of a sudden it starts to build a bit more of competitiveness (presuming future players for Peace River decide to have higher aspirations and move up to Jr. A hockey), and all of a sudden Whitecourt has two teams competing for a fan-base.
With the Jr. B team presumably all of a sudden a bit more in-tough for high-calibre players, the Jr. B team serving as a feeder club to Jr. A, and the fact Whitecourt has a large enough population base to possibly support two junior hockey clubs, nothing but good could come of this move if it goes through.
In the meantime, the Canucks are out in Whitecourt on Saturday (Sunday in Slave Lake), so in all likelihood the Canucks are going to come out 1-1 on the weekend, and the Huskies are liable to lose their Saturday tilt against Peace River.
If they go 1-1 as well, we're in the same boat heading into the final two games for the Canucks.
Should be a good finish to the NWJHL.
Tune in on Peacefm.ca Friday and Saturday as the DC Rage, meanwhile, have won five in a row and are making a press on the Kenai River Brown Bears to try make the NAHL playoffs in their first year.
