It could all come down to the final week of the season to determine who will finish in what spot in the Saskatchewan Prairie Hockey League standings.
Just when everyone was ready to proclaim a two horse race for first place between the Battleford Beaver Blues and the Maymont Settlers, the Glaslyn North Stars won seven games in a row and tossed their sticks in the ring.
Tuesday, Glaslyn beat Cut Knife 4-2. Colin Pylypow led the North Stars' offence with two goals and an assist. Jason Lloyd and Stephan Dupuis scored for Cut Knife while Todd Dymytryshyn was in the net for Cut Knife. Cameron Simkins was in net for Glaslyn in the win.
The North Stars also won on home ice Saturday against Cut Knife. Simkins earned the shutout in the 5-0 victory. It was only the second game this season that ended in a shutout. The first was Dec. 30 when Battleford beat Cut Knife 6-0.
Darcy Booy, Trent Pylypow, Colin Pylypow, Tyrell Sheperd and Mike Windsor scored for the North Stars in the win.
Glaslyn improved to 9-2-0-0 on the season and are just two points back of the league leading Beaver Blues.
The Beaver Blues had a busy week, playing three games in five nights last week.
Sunday, the Beaver Blues lost their second game of the season at the hands of the Radisson Wheat Kings. Dana Derbowka, Jonathan McIntosh and Adam Terlesky scored for the Wheat Kings on Jon Rose. Travis Keller and Keegan Sparrow tallied for the Beaver Blues. Nathan Wurst was strong in the Wheat Kings' net earning the win.
Tuesday marked a rematch between Radisson and Battleford. This time the Beaver Blues won 8-5. Mitch Hawtin earned the win between the pipes for Battleford. Brett Michnik, Brent Salzl and Roddy Hoffman all scored twice for Battleford while Sparrow and Martin Smith had solo goals. Riley Dowdswell and Derbowka scored two goals each for Radisson while Dallas Kirkpatrick had the other.
The Beaver Blues also beat Maymont 6-2 Friday in what was a battle for first place. The Beaver Blues were backstopped by Hawtin again and had six different goal scorers - Tood Heck, Hoffman, Scott Maunula, Michnik, Travis Sack and Blaine Weber.
Maymont kept pace with Battleford and are tied with Glaslyn in second place after beating Hafford 6-1 Saturday. The game was close going into the third period, but Maymont pulled away and finally were able to solve Ryan Knapton. Jeff Swain and Ryan Baptiste both had two goals while Colby and Kyle Beierle both had one goal. Patrick Gauthier had the lone Hafford goal.
The Hafford Mustangs also played Friday at home to Perdue and won 7-4. Joe Lange was in net for the win while Landon Lightfoot and Dakota Tootoosis scored twice each. Todd Forbes, Gauthier and Ryan Scheafer had the other Mustangs' goals.
The final game of the week had Saulteaux beat Radisson 4-2. Brett Night, scored twice while Gordon Lightfoot and Shane Gopher had the other Saulteaux goals in what was a penalty filled game adding up to 85 penalty minutes issued.
There are seven games on the schedule from Thursday to Tuesday in the SPHL including the final home game of the season for the Battleford Beaver Blues who host the Saulteaux 3 Stars Saturday at 8:30 p.m. The 50/50 is a guaranteed $700. It should be a good way to send the Beaver Blues into the playoffs, which will get started around Feb. 7.
