Playoffs?!?

'Tis play-off season. All three major/minor hockey teams are officially in play-offs and provincials, so let's take a look.

Bantam Outlaws:

Unfortunately, they were eliminated from the Provincial C play-offs earlier in January, however, they are sitting 5th in the standings, and will play the North Battleford team, who sit in 4th, in the 1st round of their Hi-way 14 league play-offs.

Midget Outlaws:

They deked a massive bullet in Meadow Lake last night, losing 5-2. However, they won the first game of their Provincial B Northern Semi-Final 5-1, thus ensuring a 7-6 series win. They move onto the Northern Final, playing the winner of Tisdale and St. Brieux. As for Hi-way 14 league play-offs, A quirk in the rules state that the top 4 teams can choose any of the bottom 4 teams to play. Kerrobert chose Wilkie in the unofficial fantasy draft, therefore, these two teams play their 1st round against each other. According to the website, game one in Wilkie goes tonight, however, after talking to Head coach John S. Fenrich, he said the operator of the website can get trigger-happy with posting said games. So we sit and wait.

Senior Outlaws:

Celebrating their first Provincial series win since 1993 (I highly doubt I'm wrong), The road to the final four now runs through Eston. According to Head Coach Bruce Yockey, Game 1 is to be played Saturday night in Eston. The Ramblers originally had the home-ice advantage in the 2-game, total goal series, but were willing to give it up for reasons unknown. Play-offs: They drew Edam in the 2 vs 7 match-up, Game 1 was last night. The combination of playing like a sack of potatoes and officiating that the CNIB would be proud of, led to a 5-3 win in favour of the 3 Stars.

*Disclaimer: What is about to be typed in simply my opinion, and in way is the opinion of anyone else*

The referee, who shall remain nameless, called, by far, the worst game I've seen in 8 years of watching hockey. Yes, a referee does miss things. It's part of the game. Having said that, missing in upwards of 5 calls which developed right in front of him, and only calling the blatant penalties on the home team, is just acinine. Call me biased, but I'd be making the same rant had it been in the other direction. I expect the game to be called fairly in both directions.

Outlaws/3 Stars game 2 of the best of 5 series goes Wednesday Night in the Igloo in Edam.