Playoff races heating up

The Portage Terriers are the two-time defending champions of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, but they’ll be in tough to repeat as champions this year.
That said, they’re not rolling over for anyone. Despite having a younger team this year, the Terriers went out and acquired some veteran talent to help bring along the younger players, and to make life extremely difficult for the team they will face in the playoffs – should they hold onto their spot (something which is all but certain).
One of the new players the Terriers acquired is bound to give his teammates more space on the ice. Michael Yovanic is a physical specimen, standing six foot seven inches and weighing 240 pounds. He towers over pretty much all other players.
Of course, with bigger and more physical players on the roster, the Terriers will also have to do their best to play on the edge and not over it. Giving your opponents more power-play time is the last thing any coach wants.
“It all depends on how (referees) call it – we would like to see some consistency,” said Terriers head coach Blake Spiller. “We’ll just have to make sure we adjust early in games.”
Despite not having the big goal scorers from a year ago – players such as Eric Delong and Riley Nixdorf – Spiller said they’re prepared to battle come the playoffs.
“We want to make the playoffs for sure – and there’s no guarantee there,” he said. “We brought some older guys in to help with the playoff stretch.
“And if you get in, you never know what’s going to happen,” he added. “A couple of years ago, (former Swan Valley netminder) Chris Ward almost stole one from us, so you just never know what’s going to happen in a seven-game series.”
• Speaking of playoff races, heading into the week before the all-star break, not a lot has been determined with a little more than a month remaining in the regular season.
The Dauphin Kings will finish first in the Sher-Wood Division. That’s pretty much a given.
Swan Valley is in a great position to finish second for the first time in their franchise’s history. It would take a real collapse, and a real impressive winning streak by Portage or Neepawa, to knock them out of second place.
The Terriers and Natives seem destined to battle for third and fourth place. The Terriers had a five-point budge on the Natives. But Neepawa had two games in hand. And with two games against each other, nothing is settled there.
The OCN Blizzard were in fifth place, five points back of the Neepawa Natives. However, the Blizzard were only two points back of the fourth-place Winnipeg South Blues – with five games in hand – so a potential crossover is also there for the Blizzard.
As for the rest of the Addison Division, the Selkirk Steelers and Winnipeg Saints were tied for first place, so the division title might come down the final game of the year, which just happens to pit these two divisional rivals against each other.
The Winkler Flyers are in third place, four back of the divisional leaders. But they both have games in hand on the Flyers, so it would take some kind of effort to catch either team – especially since the Flyers entered this week with only 11 games remaining.
So it looks as though there will be plenty of exciting races to follow down the stretch, setting the stage for an even more exciting playoff.
• The MJHL’s Potters Distillers Player of the Week is Niko Grose of the Waywayseecappo Wolverines.
Grose, 20, scored five goals and added an assist in four games.
The Wolverines knocked off the Addison Division-leading Selkirk Steelers twice thanks to Grose and his team putting in solid efforts despite the fact they will likely miss the playoffs this year.
The Wolverines did the same thing to the Portage Terriers the week before, sweeping a weekend home-and-home. Teams take the Wolverines lightly at their own peril these days.
Also considered for this award was Adam Stoykewych of the Winnipeg South Blues and Matt Krahn of the Neepawa Natives.
Stoykewych had seven points (two goals, five assists) in two games last week, while Krahn went 2-1 in goal for the Natives, with a .921 save percentage and 2.31 GAA.