Less than two weeks remain in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's regular season schedule and playoffs are starting to take shape.
The Yorkton Terriers led the SJHL standings with 71 points after 49 games played and were ranked second in the league behind Humboldt, who were just a point back of Yorkton in the standings earlier this week.
In the Bauer Division, Humboldt are poised to finish on top while Nipawin and Flin Flin were separated by a point before Nipawin's game Tuesday.
The North Stars, once again, are ranked seventh overall and would almost need to win all four of their final games and have Flin Flon lose all but one game to change their positioning.
The exciting race will likely be who the North Stars will face in the Bauer Conference Survivor Series. Melfort was one point up on La Ronge, but played two fewer games.
In the Sherwood Division, Melville is trying to catch Yorkton and was three points back of the top spot, but played one more game than Yorkton. Notre Dame is almost a sure thing in the third spot in the division. In fourth and fifth, are Kindersley and Estevan, and although Weyburn hasn't been officially eliminated Kindersley will likely face Estevan in the Sherwood Conference Survivor Series.
The SJHL top three teams earned Canadian Junior Hockey League Top 20 Rankings honours, as Yorkton came it at fifth, up three spots from the last ranking, Humboldt moved up one spot to ninth and Melville moved one spot up to 16th.
SJHL Players of the Week
The SJHL weekly awards were split between two teams, as Austin Yano and Tyrell King of Kindersley and Ian McNulty and Tyson Predinchuk of Melville were the winners.
McNulty was the player of the week after notching three goals and five assists in three games with the Millionaires. The impressive weekly stats have helped put McNulty on top of the list of SJHL scoring leaders with 24 goals and 41 assists in 45 games this season.
Predinchuk was reassigned from the WHL to the SJHL Jan. 10 and had his most successful week in the league last week earning the rookie of the week honour. He had one goal and four assists this week and now has two goals and five assists in eight games.
Yano was the defenceman of the month, as he recorded four assists in three games and helped Kindersley clinch a playoff spot.
Yano has three goals and 12 assists in 46 games, which were split between Estevan and Kindersley this season.
Kindersley's King was named the goaltender of the week, as he won all three starts and improved his overall number to nine. He had a 1.67 goals-against average in the week and a .953 save percentage.
