Caps have impressive season
The Summerside D. Alex MacDonald Ford Western Capitals have had one heck of a regular season.
They play their final two games on the road this weekend in Campbellton and Miramichi, N.B., and are looking to tack on a couple more wins to their very impressive 41-6-3 (won-lost-overtime losses) record this season.
No Capitals’ team in their nearly 40-year history has had such a record. The Caps entered Friday’s game in Campbellton having earned 85 of a possible 100 points after 50 games.
One would think that they may have the best winning percentage of any junior hockey team that has ever come out of Summerside. The Caps are the No. 2-ranked team in Canada and that is better than 129 other teams. The Caps have never finished a regular season with such a high ranking.
They have the best record in the Maritime Junior Hockey League and appear to be in a class of their own. They are about to get the chance to prove it.
The Caps will open the playoffs next weekend at home against either Fredericton or Campbellton and they are hoping it will be the start of a spring journey that takes them to this year’s Centennial Cup. Their lofty ranking suggests that they will be one of the teams at the 50th anniversary of the Canadian junior A hockey championship in Portage Le Prairie, Man., from May 9-17. The Caps need to do a lot of winning before then and it all starts with winning the Canadian Tire Cup league championship. That will advance them to the Fred Page Cup Eastern Canadian championship, hosted by the Saint-Jerome Panthers of the Quebec Junior Hockey League, from April 29-May 3. Anything short of the Capitals playing in May would have to be considered a major disappointment, considering just how good this team has been all year.
The expectations are high and, hopefully, for the Caps and their supporters, the team can continue its torrid pace throughout the league playoffs and beyond.
GO PANTHERS
A lot of Islanders will be paying attention to the fortunes of the UPEI women’s basketball team, which is in medal contention at the U Sports national championship this weekend in Ottawa. The Panthers play the Brock Badgers on Saturday and a win will put UPEI in Sunday’s national final.
The Panthers have never won a national title. Their best finish was runner-up at the 1989 nationals.
SENIOR HOCKEY
The O'Leary Maroons face a tough task if they hope to advance to the West Prince Senior Hockey League final. Their backs are against the wall as they enter Saturday’s Game 3 in the best-of-five semifinal series down 2-0 to arch-rival Tignish Aces.
It will be a full house at the O’Leary Community Sports Centre and one can be sure the Maroons will be at their best to try and extend the series.
The Wellington Flyers swept the Alberton Regals in the other semifinal series and await the Maroons-Aces’ winner to determine a league champion. It has been another successful year of senior hockey in West Prince. This is the third year of the league and big crowds have attended games in all four communities.
CURLING
This week’s Brier in Kingston, Ont., has been great to watch and when you have most of the best teams in the world, it can't help but be great. The addition of the wild-card team has only added to the event.
The 16 teams divided into two divisions by seeding makes for a competition where the best teams make the playoff round. The top eight are still playing and the bottom eight are on the sidelines.
The top eight had a combined 43-13 (won-lost) record on the week while the bottom eight had only 13 wins. There has been great shot-making all week and that will continue right through to Sunday's final. It is a great game to watch when you have better teams playing each other.
NHL
The NHL regular season ends on April 4 and fans are in for some great hockey leading up to the playoffs. Positioning is very much up in the air with no better example than in the Western Conference. Five teams are looking for two wild-card spots and all five are separated by only one point.
One of the hottest teams since Jan. 1 has been the Philadelphia Flyers. They are 9-1 in their last 10 games and have won eight straight games. They were in seventh place in the Eastern Conference on Jan. 1, trailing the front-running Washington Capitals by 10 points.
The Flyers have gone 18-7-2 since and are now tied with the Caps for the Metropolitan Division lead and second overall in the conference, trailing only Boston. The Bruins look like the team to beat in the East and quite likely will meet a wild-card team in the opening round.
That team is not likely to be Toronto, which appears to be headed for an opening-round series with Tampa Bay. The Leafs stand a better chance of beating the Lightning than the Bruins, who have ousted the Leafs in the last two opening rounds.
Whether it be local playoff hockey, the NHL stretch drive or the upcoming NHL playoffs, it is the favourite time of year for hockey fans. It will be a great spring of hockey.
Have a great week!