Blizzard head coach Ryan Salvis has been saying since the beginning of the season that all games in the MHL are not easy even if the opponent is far behind in the standings. For example, the Valley Wildcats, who will be in Edmundston on December 3rd, beat the top team in the league, the South Shore Lumberjacks, 4-1 on Sunday. The Blizzard will face two teams by Sunday who are last in their respective division. The Blizzard must not take anything for granted. Photo Olivier Chiasson.
This week, the Blizzard finds itself relegated to 20th place after occupying the 14th place last week. Yet Edmundston had a weekend of two wins and one loss. With a record of 16 wins, 4 defeats and 2 overtime losses, we could have thought that the Blizzard would be better ranked. Perhaps Sunday’s 5-1 loss explains this plunge of 6 ranks.
The Blizzard is the top team in the EastLink North Division of the Maritime Junior Hockey League with 34 points, 10 more than the Campbellton Tigers (11-9-2-0).
The South Shore Lumberjacks (18-5-0-0), leaders of the EastLink South Division remained in 10th place on the Canadian board for a third week in a row. The Yarmouth Mariners (16-6-0-0), despite winning both of their weekend games, have been squeezed out of the top 20 teams in the country. They were in 19th place last week.
The Blizzard will play three games in five nights this week at the Jean-Daigle Centre in Edmundston. On Wednesday and Friday, at 7:30 pm, they host the Woodstock Slammers (5-12-3-1). On Sunday at 3 pm the Wildcats Valley (7-13-0-1) will be the visitors.
Picked by an independent scouting service, the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s weekly rankings are based upon a variety of factors, including winning percentage; win-loss record; point totals; goals-for versus goals-against ratio, etc., and the league they compete in.
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Contact: Hugues Chiasson, vice-president communications – The Edmundston Blizzard; (506) 740-0623 – cell phone