Feature Story

Bandits, RoadRunners fight to the finish

 

By Brian McDonough

 

One weekend left in the regular season, and still no champion.

That’s what the NAHL looks like with only a handful of games to play, and the final act couldn’t have been scripted any better with the St. Louis Bandits and the Topeka RoadRunners going head-to-head in a two-game set to decide the league championship.

“We fully expect our team to be treating these games like it’s playoff hockey,” said Bandits head coach Jeff Brown. “With the division title and the regular-season title and home ice throughout the postseason on the line, the playoffs begin Friday night.”

“They’ll be on the hunt against us,” said RoadRunners head coach Scott Langer. “We’ll have to be perfect in every aspect against them. Series like this is why we play the game.”

For the Bandits, who hold a one-point edge over the RoadRunners in the South Division with 88 points, a sweep, split or a win and a shootout/overtime loss will give them their second consecutive regular-season title. The RoadRunners need a sweep or a win and a shootout/overtime loss to win the championship.

That second scenario – a Topeka win and a shootout/overtime loss - would leave both teams with 90 points. With the first regular-season tiebreaker – most wins – still tied (49 each), the RoadRunners would hold the second tiebreaker – head-to-head points – with a 16-13 advantage over the Bandits.

For the RoadRunners, who are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, they’ll need to rebound from a two-game split with the Wichita Falls Wildcats last weekend.

“We’ve put ourselves in a tough spot, but, if we’re competitive inside, we’ll bounce back,” said Langer.

St. Louis, which holds a 9-1 mark in its last 10, enters the weekend after two wins over the North Division-leading Mahoning Valley Phantoms.

“Sweeping Mahoning Valley, a team that we have so much respect for, was a good tune-up for this all-important weekend against Topeka,” said Brown. “We were happy with the results, but feel that we still have yet to play our best hockey.”

And the season-series between the two powerhouses has been nothing short of dramatic, with all but one of the teams’ 10 games decided by two goals or fewer, with four of those determined in overtime or a shootout.

“Topeka is full of veterans and they have guys who’ve experienced playoff hockey before,” said Brown of the RoadRunners, who represented the South Division at last year’s Robertson Cup Championship Tournament. “They have a lot of depth and it should be another good test for our hockey club.”

“St. Louis has been a consistent team all year,” said Langer of the two-time defending Robertson Cup champions. “They haven’t taken a night off since Christmas. They’re hungry.”

The series kicks off Friday at Hardee’s Iceplex in Chesterfield, Mo. (7:15 faceoff). Game 2 slated for Saturday at the Iceplex with another 7:15 p.m. start.

“We need to be mentally tough,” said Langer. “We have to put the last month behind us and move forward. We’ll need to start working harder defensively, back to what we’ve put pride in since this franchise came about.”

“I think we just need to play Bandits hockey,” said Brown. “We know how Topeka plays, and Topeka knows how we play, so when it’s all said and done, this weekend is going to come down to who wants it more.”

The Central’s playoff picture became crystal clear last weekend, as the Bismarck Bobcats rattled off three wins to lock up their first-ever regular-season division championship.

The Bobcats will host the No. 4-seed Alexandria Blizzard in the first round of the playoffs, with the No. 2-seed North Iowa Outlaws hosting the Owatonna Express in the other divisional semifinals series.

“The fact that it’s the first division title in franchise history is pretty special,” said Bobcats head coach Byron Pool. “They’ve had some great teams in Bismarck, and to be the first is a great accomplishment for these young men. It’s something they should extremely be proud of.”

The final berth is still up for grabs in the North Division, as the Marquette Rangers, who skated to a two-game sweep over the Motor City Machine last weekend, inched closer to the Alpena IceDiggers, who picked up one point in three attempts, for the last spot.

With 58 points apiece, Alpena has three games remaining - two at Mahoning Valley and one at the U.S. Under-17 Team - and Marquette two (a two-game home series against the Traverse City North Stars).

The North’s regular-season championship is also still in play, with Mahoning Valley (75 points, two games remaining), Traverse City (72, two remaining) and the U.S. National Team (71, four remaining) all fighting for the division’s top spot.

“I’ve been around for a while, and I don’t think I’ve seen so much undecided heading into the final weekend of the season,” said NAHL commissioner Mark Frankenfeld. “It certainly makes things exciting, and the playoffs should only be better.”

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