March 18, 2017

FIELD OF POTENTIAL OPPONENTS FOR IJS REDUCED TO TWO

The field of potential playoff opponents for the Idaho Junior Steelheads next weekend in McCall has been narrowed from three to two.

The Tahoe Icemen have eliminated the Vancouver Rangers with 6-3 and 10-5 victories the last two nights.  Hat tricks by Gabel Longshore on Thursday and Colton Langowski on Friday led the Icemen scoring.

Goaltender Artur Pavliukov, who debuted with Tahoe when they came to Idaho for a three game series in February after starting the season with El Paso, made 44 saves Thursday and 54 on Friday.

The Bellingham-Butte quarterfinal begins in Butte tonight (Saturday) at 7 PM MDT.  The second game is slated for 2 PM Sunday.  If a third game is necessary, it will be played at 7 PM Monday.

If Bellingham, the No. 6 seed, is able to upset Butte, the No. 3 seed, then the Junior Steelheads will play Bellingham next weekend.

If Butte prevails this weekend, the Junior Steelheads will face Tahoe.  Tahoe was the No. 5 seed, upending No. 4 Vancouver.

In other WSHL quarterfinal series, Las Vegas has eliminated the Fresno Monsters with wins Thursday and Friday.

Last night, Springfield, Wichita, Utah, Casper, and Ontario, all the higher seeded teams, won the first games of their respective series.

Submitted by Dick Dorfman