The regular season is over and the first round playoff match-ups have been finalized in the Big Six Hockey League.
The Redvers Rockets finished the regular season with the best overall record at 14-1-1, good for 29 points. Redvers entered the final week of the season in second spot, trailing the Carnduff Red Devils (13-2-1, 27 points), but Carnduff had already played all of their games, while Redvers had three games remaining.
Redvers won 8-2 over the Midale Mustangs Friday night in Redvers and Saturday in Midale. They were supposed to play the Wawota Flyers Sunday in the regular season finale, but the Flyers, who were going to miss the playoffs anyways, forfeited the game.
The top-seeded Rockets and the No. 8 Mustangs (2-13-1, five points) will meet again in the playoffs.
Carnduff, who won their final 11 regular season games, will be the No. 2 seed, and will face the seventh-seeded Bienfait Coalers (6-9-1, 13 points) in the opening round. Bienfait finished the season by defeating the Carlyle Cougars 6-5 in a shootout last Tuesday, and losing 7-5 to the Moosomin Rangers on Friday.
The Yellow Grass Wheat Kings (11-4-1, 23 points) will be the No. 3 seed, and will play the No. 6 Oxbow Huskies (6-8-2, 14 points). The two teams played on Friday, with Yellow Grass winning 9-1, a week after Oxbow had defeated Yellow Grass.
Nate Ferris of Yellow Grass had the best goals against average in the league at 2.85.
The other series will be No. 4 Moosomin (11-5, 22 points) facing the No. 5 Carlyle Cougars (8-7-1, 17 points). Carlyle did defeat Moosomin 6-5 in a shootout on Thursday. The Cougars finished the season with a 12-2 win over Wawota.
The series will feature the top three scorers in the league. Moosomin’s Bud Holloway led the league with 45 points, on 25 goals and 20 assists. Carlyle’s Ben Johnston (18-24-42) was second, and Carlyle teammate Ben Gaudet (13-28-41) was third.
The Flyers wound up in last place with a 1-15 record.
The dates for the playoff games have not been released.
In provincial play, the Red Devils routed the Assiniboia Rebels 7-2 Saturday in Carnduff in Game 1 of their best of three senior C south semi-final. Game 2 is slated for Sunday at 4 p.m. in Assiniboia. Game 3, if necessary, would be Feb. 20 in Carnduff.
