All eight teams in the North Saskatchewan River Hockey League are in a two-team race in the standings heading into the final 10 days of the season.
On the top, St. Walburg has a 16-2-0 record while Meadow Lake is one point back with a 15-2-1 mark.
Meadow Lake extended their winning streak to nine games with two wins on the weekend.
The Stampeders beat Paradise Hill Saturday by a 4-0 score. Rick Dallyn earned the shutout and Cole Fern, Logan Gorst, Tedi Hood and Ashton McIntryre scored for the Stampeders.
Sunday, Meadow Lake beat the Spiritwood Timberwolves 9-2. The game was tied after the first period, but Meadow Lake added five goals in the second and two more in the third to earn the win. Eric Calibaba and Hood had two goals each for Meadow Lake while Jace Anderson, Calvin Fiddler, Dustin and Logan Gorst and Brent Pevach all had single markers. Jeff Vidal was beat twice in the Meadow Lake net, as Raymon Harris and Micheal Van Dyke had the Spiritwood goals.
St. Walburg also had two wins last week. The Eagles beat the Timberwolves 10-3 Friday, as nine different players found the back of the net for St. Walburg.
Tuesday, the Eagles beat Turtleford 7-2. Jordan Fuder had a hat trick and two assists while Randy Larre and Kevin Nasby had two goals each. Bryan Bridges earned his second win of the week.
In the race for third place, Wilkie and Maidstone entered the weekend tied with 22 points, but Maidstone had played one less game. Those two will have an important head-to-head matchup Friday in Maidstone at 9 p.m.
Last weekend, Wilkie was scheduled to play twice, but postponed their game in Spiritwood to go to Dundurn to play the first game of provincials. In the Outlaws' only league game of the week they beat Turtleford 6-3. Kyle Dodgson scored twice while Kris Bloom had the other goal for Turtleford. Wilkie came from behind and scored five goals in the third period to win. Barrett Penner had a hat trick while Rick Cey scored twice and Aaron Dueck had the other.
Maidstone beat Paradise Hill 8-2 Friday and Edam 6-0 Saturday to keep pace with the Outlaws.
Friday, Brett Harrison had three goals and two assists while Rory Gregoire had two goals and two assists. Troy Johnston, Marco Pellizzari and Jared Rutley had the other Maidstone goals against Paradise Hills.
The rival Turtleford Tigers and Edam 3 Stars are in a race for the fifth and sixth spots in the standings, but the Tigers lead the race by five points. Both teams lost their games of the week as Turtleford are 7-9-1 on the season and Edam sits at 4-10-2.
In the battle between the seventh and eighth place teams, Spiritwood leads Paradise Hill by one point with a 2-12-1 record. Those two teams will square off Friday in another important game in NSRHL action.
Spiritwood also plays Edam on the weekend while St. Walburg plays Edam Friday night in a light week for NSRHL action because several teams are involved in provincials this weekend.
Meadow Lake kicks off their provincial A series with Shellbrook Saturday in Meadow Lake in game one of the best-of-three series. Game two is Feb. 3 in Shellbrook and if game three is necessary it is scheduled for Feb. 4 in Meadow Lake.
The Rosthern/Maidstone team, which will be playing out of Rosthern this season will be up against LeRoy in provincial A action.
Wilkie hosts Dundurn Saturday in provincial C action. Wilkie won 6-2 last weekend in the first game of the two-game total-goal series on the road.
In provincial D action, Turtleford travels to Lake Lenore Friday and hosts Lake Lenore Sunday.
