Weekend Roundup Jan 23

20 games remain in the NWJHL regular season, some things are becoming clear, however, some things are getting cloudier. 

Lets start with the clear stuff, the Huskies have the #1 seed locked up for the playoffs, they recorded their 31st win of the season Sunday when they beat the Kodiaks 5-3. The Sexsmith Vipers can lock up the #2 seed with a win of any fashion Friday when the host the Kings. The Vipers went 1-1 over the weekend, first beating the Flyers then dropping a 5-3 contest to the Navigators Saturday night.

Now for the cloudier areas of the standings. The Kings and Kodiaks are separated by 3 points, however the Kodiaks do have two games in hand. Looking at each teams remaining schedule the Kodiaks have 4 home and 4 away games, of these 8 remaining games. three are against teams that are above them and five are against teams that are below. The Kings have six games remaining, two are against the Vipers while the remaining four are against the Flyers and Navigators. Giving an edge to either team is near impossible, but if we had to give one team an advantage as to obtaining that #3 seed, it would be the Kings since they are still three points up currently.

Of course, something that could throw a wrench into the above prediction is a Fairview hot streak. With  games left to go, they play the Kodiaks three times, the Kings twice and the Huskies one final time. Its not out of the picture that the Flyers could move up the standings and get home ice in the first round.

The last team to review is the Navigators who have been playing good hockey their last five games, going 3-1-1 and most recently beating the Vipers 5-3. The Navs remaining schedule has them playing the Huskies, Kings and Kodiaks all twice and a single game against the Vipers. If the Navs are going to make a late season push to move up the standings they will have to start by beating both BC teams who they play this weekend.