ALBERTON, P.E.I. — The West Prince Senior Hockey League kicks into playoff mode this weekend.
One best-of-five semifinal series will start in Tyne Valley on Friday, and the other gets underway in O’Leary on Saturday.
The Tyne Valley Dennis Motors Tornadoes, with six wins in eight regular-season starts, finished the regular season in first place with 12 points. The Tornadoes, who earned home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs, will face fourth-place Alberton Regals in Round 1. The Regals had two wins, including the final game of the regular season, for four points.
Game time for the series-opening contest at the Tyne Valley Sports Centre is 7:45 p.m. The series shifts to Alberton for Game 2 on March 6 at 8:15 p.m., and back to Tyne Valley for Game 3 on March 8 at 7:45 p.m.
Maroons vs. Flyers
The O’Leary Évangéline-Central Credit Union Maroons (5-3) finished second overall with 10 points, and will play third place Wellington Arsenault Bros. Flyers, who had three wins, four losses and one overtime setback. The series opens at the O’Leary Community Sports Centre on Saturday at 8 p.m.
Wellington hosts Game 2 on March 9 at 7:30 p.m., and the teams return to O’Leary for Game 3 on March 12 at 8 p.m.
The third-year league, which runs a short regular season, continues to enjoy a large fan base at all of its games.
O’Leary linemates Darcy Tuplin and Mike MacIsaac tied for first place in the league scoring race with 12 goals each. Tuplin won the points race with 30 points, two more than MacIsaac.
O’Leary and Alberton players occupied the top eight places in the overall points race, and the Tyne Valley netminding duo of Jake Hackett and Jeff Noye had the best goals-against averages, 2.25 and 3.49.
The Maroons (52) and Regals (47) had the most regular-season goals.
Leaders
West Prince Senior Hockey League regular-season leaders:
Scoring Race
Player (team) G A Pts
Darcey Tuplin (OL) 12 18 30
Mike MacIsaac (OL) 12 16 28
Garrett Lewis (Alb) 10 8 18
Willie Gaudet (Alb) 9 9 18
Logan Smallman (Alb) 8 9 17
Mitch Hardy (Alb) 5 11 16
Jeff MacIsaac (OL) 7 8 15
TJ Campbell (TV) 7 8 15
Jesse MacIntyre (Alb) 6 9 15
Evan Shea (TV) 5 6 11
Todd MacDougall (Well) 4 7 11
Goaltenders
GAA
Jake Hackett (TV) 2.25
Jeff Noye (TV) 3.49
Chase Dyment (OL) 5.20
Neil Arsenault (Well) 5.23
Spencer Rennie (Alb) 6.80
