Race for playoff positioning heating up with three weekends left

The race to the B.C. Intercollegiate Hockey League playoffs is on, and there's plenty yet to be worked out before the puck drops on the postseason March 8th.

Atop the standings, the stranglehold that Trinity Western University once held on first place has slowly loosened. The Spartans now sit just one point ahead of Selkirk College and three up on Vancouver Island University for the regular season title and home-ice advantage through the playoffs.

TWU has three games in hand on both the teams chasing them, and four of their five remaining games come against SFU and UVic, who sit fourth and fifth in the league standings. But they play all five contests on the road after closing out the regular season with a 9-2-0-1 record at the Langley Events Centre.

The tightest race is for second place, as the Saints and Mariners sit just one point apart with two games remaining for both teams. Selkirk has consecutive bye weekends before closing out the regular season with a pair of road contests at SFU, while VIU hosts SFU on Friday and TWU on Saturday before sitting idle until the first round. The Mariners will want to avoid a trip to Castlegar in March if possible, as they are coming off back-to-back road losses in the Kootenays and dropped three of four road games to the Saints this season.

Meanwhile, SFU sits firmly in fourth place needing just a single point to clinch a playoff berth. The Clan would need to go on an unbelieveable late season run in their six remaining games to catch Selkirk or VIU, who they currently trail by 10 and eight points respectively, but they do play all but one of those games at home while facing VIU once and Selkirk twice.

The University of Victoria sits in fifth place with a 3-14-0-2 record and would need to win all five of their remaining games, combined with a long SFU losing streak, in order to have a shot at a playoff spot. The Vikes have had some bright spots this season, inlcuding a three-point road weekend at Trinity Western and a big home win over the Clan, but they haven't been able to carry over those big performances into subsequent games.

Four teams are in action this weekend, including a three-game in four-day stretch for TWU. The Spartans travel to face Victoria and VIU on Friday and Saturday before returning to the Mainland to battle SFU in a Family Day matinee on Monday. The Clan also make a trip across the Georgria Strait when they visit the Mariners on Friday.