Feature Story

Race for playoff positioning heats up

 

By Jon Garver

 

With two weekends of play remaining in the regular season, the USHL playoff picture is beginning to gain some clarity, as seven of the eight spots in the post-season derby have been claimed. The one remaining entry is the final slot in the West Division. And although the entrants will be decided before the final week, chances are their positions will not be known until the final horn sounds on the 2008-09 USHL season.

“It seems like we are saying every year that the league is tighter than ever before, but it’s the truth.  And this season will be no exception,” said USHL Executive Vice President Gino Gasparini.  “You have a race that’s very tight in the East Division and the odds are we won’t know until the last day who the winner of the Anderson Cup will be.

“So it looks like this season will again be among the tightest that we have seen.”

The four playoff teams in the East Division will be Cedar Rapids, Green Bay, Indiana and Waterloo. Green Bay clinched their spot in the post-season last weekend, while the other three punched their tickets on Friday and Saturday. And although the four teams are known, where they’ll finish is as wide open as it has been all season long. The four teams are separated by just three points. Any of the four could win the division and any of the four could finish in fourth place.

“The USHL schedule may say that the playoffs start the first week of April, but if you are in the East Division, they have already started. I am not one to scoreboard watch but you can’t help it when there is a chance you can go from first to fourth place in one night,” said Green Bay Head Coach Jon Cooper.  “There is just a playoff feel in the locker room as teams battle for home ice.  This ultimately will help these teams prepare for a Clark Cup run.”

The last two weeks of regular season play feature games almost exclusively inside the division, so the four teams all control their own destiny in a way.

The West Division has a little less drama. Lincoln, Fargo and Omaha have already clinched their positions, and the Stars have also already clinched the division title. Sioux Falls needs two points to nail down the fourth and final playoff spot, as they do their best to close out Sioux City. Any combination of two points gained by the Stampede and lost by the Musketeers will send the Herd into the post-season. 

If and when Sioux Falls clinches their playoff spot, they will need a miracle to crack the top three in the division. So it appears that the Stampede will play Lincoln in the first round for the third straight year, while Fargo and Omaha will meet in the other series. The two teams are in a dead heat in the standings, so home-ice advantage between the two is still up for grabs.

Lincoln sits atop the league with 75 points, one point ahead of Indiana and Green Bay in the race for the regular season title and the Anderson Cup. The Stars, however, only have four games to play, while Indiana has five and Green Bay has seven.

“It will make for an interesting last two weeks,” Gasparini said.

 

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