The St. Walburg Eagles are finished their regular season schedule and looking forward to the North Saskatchewan River Hockey League playoffs while five other teams will finish this weekend.
The Eagles suffered just their second loss of the season Saturday, as Meadow Lake won 4-3, earning the Stampeders a fifth straight win.
Also Saturday night, in a potential playoff matchup, Paradise Hill beat Wilkie for the second time this season. The score was 3-1. The Hawks are 3-13-1 on the season and have an outside chance of moving up from seventh place to sixth in the standings if Maidstone loses both their games and Paradise Hill wins their last game Friday against Edam.
The Maidstone Jets lost to Edam Saturday by a 6-4 score. The Jets remain at four wins on the season while Edam is 8-8-1 and in fifth, for the time being.
In another potential playoff matchup, Turtleford beat Edam Wednesday night 9-5 to leapfrog the 3 Stars into fourth place. Turtleford is finished their schedule while Edam has one game remaining and could jump back ahead of the Tigers with a win.
Meadow Lake beat Paradise Hill 7-6 Tuesday and the Stamps are two points out of second place. If they catch the Wilkie Outlaws in the standings, the Outlaws have the tiebreaker and will hold off the hot Stampeders.
If St. Walburg chooses to take their first round bye, the playoff matchups sit like this heading into the final weekend. Wilkie would face Paradise Hill, Meadow Lake would play Maidstone and Edam and Turtleford would square off.
NSRHL teams are also balancing provincial playoffs and some have played games already. Turtleford beat Kerrobert 5-4 and 4-3 to win the provincial D series 9-7 and advance to the next round.
In C provincials, Wilkie beat Allan in the first game 6-3 and will play in Wilkie Feb. 9.
St. Walburg starts their series with Rosthern in A provincials Saturday with game two going in St. Walburg Feb. 9.
Edam will play Dundurn Saturday in game one of their provincial D series. Game two goes in Dundurn Feb. 9.
