CJHL Playoff Spotlight: The SJHL

CALGARY, Alta. – As one of the 10 members of the Canadian Junior Hockey League, the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League is set to begin the quarter-final stage of their Canalta Cup playoffs Friday evening.

Here’s a glance at the SJHL with the latest edition of the CJHL Playoff Spotlight.

SEASON: Regular season action saw the Nipawin Hawks finish first overall in the 12-team SJHL standings with a solid 43-8-3-4 record.

Their 93 points were seven more Battlefords North Stars, the defending league playoff champions.

The competitive league saw eight of its member clubs register 29 or more victories.

TOP SCORERS: The North Stars’ Layne Young had a tremendous campaign offensively for his squad as he ran away with the SJHL scoring title by amassing 107 points.

The 20-year-old from Frenchman Butte, Sask., led all league skaters in both goals (35) and assists (72).

His totals mark a 36-point improvement over the 2016-17 campaign.

Finishing second in SJHL numbers was Logan Schatz of the Humboldt Broncos.

The CJHL’s 1st Star of the Month for February recorded 85 points in total during the season as he scored 22 times and helped set-up 63 others.

Nipawin blueliner Josh McDougall paced all SJHL defencemen in scoring with 74 points, including 17 tallies. His numbers also tied him for fourth in league production.

TOP GOALKEEPERS: The Nipawin Hawks netminding duo of Jake Anthony and Declan Hobbs were one-two respectively among SJHL goals-against average leaders at 1.94 and 2.20.

Anthony was tops in save percentage at .929 while Battlefords’ Taryn Kotchorek led in shutouts with five.

PLAYOFFS: The SJHL’s two Wild Card series are now complete as the Flin Flon Bombers and Weyburn Red Wings both advanced following one-goal victories in deciding games held Wednesday night.

Here’s a look at the league’s four quarter-final match-ups:

No. 1 Nipawin vs. No. 9 Flin Flon: The league-leading Hawks finished well ahead of the Bombers in the Sherwood Division standings. … Flin Flon advanced to the quarter-finals after getting by the Notre Dame Hounds. … The Hawks allowed the fewest goals-against in league play at 131 and scored the second-most times with 232 tallies. … Nipawin was an impressive 24-2-1-2 on home ice while Flin Flon was 16-8-3-2. … The Hawks’ leading point-getter was defenceman Josh McDougall, who racked up 74 in 55 outings. … Pacing the Bombers was forward Nate Hooper with 56. … Nipawin netminders Jake Anthony and Declan Hobbs combined for 44 wins between them.

No. 2 Battlefords vs. No. 7 Weyburn: The North Stars enter the postseason riding a 12-game playoff winning streak as they ran the table in 2017 and went undefeated en route to the league championship. … Weyburn made it after edging the Melville Millionaires 3-2 in overtime Wednesday. … The North Stars’ Layne Young led all SJHL skaters in points with 107 while Cade Kowalski had 60 for the Wings.

No. 3 Estevan vs. No. 6 Kindersley: Only eight points separated these two teams in the overall standings. … The Bruins went 8-2 in their final 10 regular season contests while the Klippers were 7-3. … Estevan did lead the SJHL in goals scored with 234 with Kindersley allowing 10 fewer goals against than their opponent at 174. …  Zach Goberis led the Bruins with 78 points and Keillan Olson topped the Klippers (59).

No. 4 Melfort vs. No. 5 Humboldt: Both clubs produced 30-plus win seasons in 2017-18. … The Mustangs were a solid 23-4-1-1 at home while the Broncos were 19-7-1-2. … Melfort’s Loch Morrison led his team in scoring as the defenceman scored 19 times and doled out 48 assists for 67 points. … Humboldt’s Logan Schatz’s 85 points put him second in the SJHL.

ANAVET CUP: The return of the ANAVET Cup will feature the SJHL champion squaring off with the title holder of the MJHL in a best-of-seven series.

Awaiting the ANAVET Cup winner will be a berth in the 2018 RBC Cup Canadian Jr. A Championship, May 12-20, in Chilliwack, B.C.

The Chilliwack Chiefs (BCHL) will be the host of that event. They’ll be joined by the champions of the Fred Page Cup (Eastern), the Dudley-Hewitt Cup (Central) and the Doyle Cup (Alberta/B.C.).

CJHL RANKINGS:  The final CJHL Top 20 Rankings featured a trio of SJHL sides earning national recognition.

League regular season winner Nipawin was ranked eighth overall in the 132-team CJHL while the defending SJHL champion Battlefords was 13th and Melfort was tabbed 14th.

The SJHL

President: Bill Chow
Communications: Mike Stackhouse
Defending champion: Battlefords North Stars
Website: sjhl.ca
Twitter: @theSJHL
Facebook: /thesjhl

FINAL REGULAR SEASON STANDINGS

VITERRA DIVISION

GP

W

L

OTL

SOL

PTS

Estevan Bruins

58

34

19

3

2

73

Weyburn Red Wings

58

29

23

5

1

64

Melville Millionaires

58

23

31

2

2

50

Yorkton Terriers

58

13

40

3

2

31

GLOBAL AG RISK SOLUTIONS DIV.

GP

W

L

OTL

SOL

PTS

Battlefords North Stars

58

42

14

2

0

86

Humboldt Broncos

58

33

19

3

3

72

Kindersley Klippers

58

29

22

4

3

65

Notre Dame Hounds

58

29

24

1

4

63

SHERWOOD DIVISION

GP

W

L

OTL

SOL

PTS

Nipawin Hawks

58

43

8

3

4

93

Melfort Mustangs

58

39

13

4

2

84

Flin Flon Bombers

58

24

26

3

5

56

La Ronge Ice Wolves

58

10

45

0

3

23

FINAL REGULAR SEASON SCORING LEADERS

PLAYER POS TEAM GP G A PTS
Layne Young F BAT 57 35 72 107
Logan Schatz F HUM 57 22 63 85
Zach Goberis F EST 58 34 44 78
MacGregor Sinclair F BAT 55 33 41 74
Josh McDougall D NIP 55 17 57 74

FINAL REGULAR SEASON GOALS-AGAINST AVERAGE LEADERS (Minimum 1,000 minutes played)
GOALTENDER    
    TEAM    GP    W    L    OTL/SL    GAA    SV%    SO
Jake Anthony    
    NIP        32    20    3        3            1.94    0.929    1
Declan Hobbs    
    NIP        29    22    4        3            2.20    0.919    3
Taryn Kotchorek  BAT    
   30    19    8        2            2.30    0.919    5
Parker Tobin    
       HUM     22    14    6        1            2.40    0.918    2
Bo Didur    
               EST         19    12    5        2            2.46    0.920    1