Playoff race continues this weekend; University Cup gets underway

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs head into Friday's action in a tie for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's final playoff spot.

The Sea Dogs and Val-d'Or Foreurs both have 51 points with four regular season games remaining. The tie-break is total wins excluding shootout wins, which the Foreurs currently have an edge in (23-22).

Finishing 15th overall isn't out of the question for Saint John either. The Blainville-Boisbriand Armada have 52 points with four games remaining.

The Sea Dogs have a tough test on Friday, hosting the Halifax Mooseheads. They return to action on Sunday, taking on the Charlottetown Islanders at TD Station.

The Foreurs will face the Drummondville Voltigeurs and Sherbrooke Phoenix this weekend while the Armada will take on the Baie-Comeau Drakkar twice.

Some other stuff...

• Friday is St. Patrick's Day and the Sea Dogs have a number of promotions taking place.
• A couple of franchise records to keep an eye on this weekend: Brady Burns is two points away from tying the franchise points record (257 - Jonathan Huberdeau) while Nicolas Bilodeau is one point away from tying the team record for most points by a rookie defenseman (41 - Radim Salda).
• At the University Cup quarterfinals, Dawson Theede and the Saint Mary's Huskies had their season come to an end with a 4-1 loss to Julien Tessier and the UQTR Patriotes. Theede was a -2 with two shots and four minutes in penalties while Tessier went 8/15 on faceoffs.
• In the second quarterfinal, Gardiner MacDougall's UNB Reds edged the Concordia Stingers 2-1. Jonathan Lemieux was named Concordia's player of the game with 23 saves. Christopher Inniss also had a strong performance in the loss. Kale McCallum and Nick Blagden were both out of the UNB lineup.
• The Reds and Patriotes will now meet in the 1 p.m. semifinal on Saturday. The bronze and gold medal games will take place on Sunday.
• Friday's quarterfinals will feature the Alberta Golden Bears taking on the Windsor Lancers and the Calgary Dinos facing the UPEI Panthers.