Playoff positioning coming right down to the wire in WPSHL

Only two points separate top three teams

Playoff positioning in the West Prince Senior Hockey League will come right down to the final two games of the regular season.

The Tyne Valley Tornadoes kept their playoff hopes alive on Friday night, and the Tignish Aces earned an important win on Saturday evening.

The Tornadoes posted a 7-2 victory over the O’Leary Maroons, and the Aces edged the Wellington Flyers 4-3. Those results mean that only two points separate the top three teams.

The Tornadoes, who are 2-4-1 (wonlost-overtime losses), closed to within one point of the fourth-place O’Leary Maroons (3-5-0) and the final playoff berth.

Tyne Valley closes out the regular season in Tignish on Saturday at 7:45 p.m., while the Maroons have completed regular-season play.

It will also be a big game for the Aces (4-3-0), who are one point behind the second-place Flyers (4-2-1) and two back of the league-leading Alberton Regals (5-2-0). The Regals host the Flyers at the Jacques Cartier Arena on Wednesday in a contest that will determine first place. Puck drop is set for 8 p.m.

Tornadoes 7 Maroons 2

At the Tyne Valley Community Sports Centre, Adam Ballum scored once and assisted on three others to lead the Tornadoes. Matt Ballum (1-1), Evan Ballum (1-1), Nick Petitpas, TJ Campbell, Dale Spence and Lucas Dyment also scored for Tyne Valley.

Tyson Callaghan and Adam Reilly replied for O’Leary.

The period scores were 1-1 and 3-1 in favour of the Tornadoes. Winning goaltender was Jeff Noye.

Aces 4 Flyers 3

At the Tignish Credit Union Arena, Traven Gaudet’s second goal of the game in the third period proved to be the difference. Brett Gaudet and Tyson Arsenault added single tallies.

Nick Arsenault, Ben Johnson and Todd MacDougall countered for the Flyers. The Aces held period leads of 2-1 and 3-1.

Troy Ellsworth earned the goaltending win.