Three of the top four teams in the Saskatchewan Prairie Hockey League have advanced including the only two teams to have won the league championship.
Those two teams, the defending champion Battleford Beaver Blues and Maymont Settlers, the inaugural champions, will face off in the second round of playoffs.
Battleford got by Hafford in three games while Maymont lost once and beat Perdue in four games.
Friday in Perdue, the Pirates' season came to an end with an 8-5 loss. Clark McNulty scored three times for Perdue while Reegan Johnston and Kyle Litchenwald both had two goals and an assist for Maymont. Their linemate, Chad Bernier had one goal and three assists.
Spencer Laycock was the winning goalie.
Perdue's SPHL season came to an end, but they will face Unity this weekend in senior B provincials with the first game in Perdue and game two scheduled for Saturday in Unity.
The other Friday night game from the first round had Spiritwood beat Radisson 17-4 and sweep the series.
Just two players listed on Spiritwood's roster didn't record a point that game while Kyle Brataschuk led the way with four goals and three assists.
Spiritwood advanced to face Cut Knife, who swept the series with Glaslyn.
Both series get started Friday.
During the regular season, Cut Knife won two of three games against Spiritwood, but in all three wins it was the home team coming away with the victory.
In the other semifinal series, Maymont and Battleford were 1-1 against each other and, again, it was the home team winning both games.
After one round of playoffs, Battlefords Brent Salzl leads the league with 13 points (six goals and seven assists in three games). Brataschuk is tied for second with seven goals and five assists, while Maymont's Litchenwald has the same number of points in four games.
