Breakers locked into top spot in the ECSHL
Southern Shore, undefeated in regulation, has clinched first place
Two wins this past weekend clinched top spot for the defending leaguechampion Breakers (12-0-1), whose 25 points puts them 11 points up on the second-place Clarenville Ford Caribous.
They’ve been the first-place Southern Shore Puglisevich Breakers pretty much since the start of the 2019-20 East Coast Senior Hockey League season and they’ll keep that label until the end of the campaign.
Two wins this past weekend clinched top spot for the defending league-champion Breakers (12-0-1), whose 25 points puts them 11 points up on the second-place Clarenville Ford Caribous.
Clarenville, which has four regular-season games remaining, can’t overtake the Breakers. Neither can the third-place St. John’s Caps, who have six games remaining — including three that were postponed during the recent state of emergency in the provincial capital. Even if the Caps won all of those half dozen games, and the Breakers lose the two left on their schedule, St. John’s would come up a point short.
The situation would have been different had the ECSHL teams played a 20-game schedule as had originally been planned. But because of the delay in getting the season underway while the issue of the Harbour Grace Ocean Enterprise Ceebee Stars’ joining the league was worked out, the schedule was scaled back so that each team plays just 15 regular-season contests.
And that means the Breakers have already clinched top spot.
As a result, it means the remaining races are those for second place, which right now, mainly involves the Caribous and Caps, and for fourth place and a playoff berth, where the Northeast The Bigs Eagles, Conception Bay Blues and Ceebees are in the mix.
However, the Ceebees are in danger of falling out of the playoff picture after a pair of weekend losses, 5-4 to Northeast on Saturday in Harbour Grace, and 9-1 to the Breakers Sunday in Mobile.
In the latter game, Daniel Cadigan had six points (2G, 4A), giving him 24 points on the year and the league scoring lead over Kyle Mcgrath of the Caps.
The next games on the league schedule are Friday night, when the Breakers take on the Blues at the C.B.S. Arena, and at Twin Rinks, where the Caps host the Ceebees.