A lot to figure out in final weekend

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

It will take the final weekend of the regular season to determine who the Saint John Sea Dogs will play in the first round of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League playoffs.

The Sea Dogs, who are locked into the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, will play the team that finishes first. That will be either the Moncton Wildcats or the Chicoutimi Sagueneens.

Heading into this weekend's action, the Wildcats will play the Charlottetown Islanders twice while the Sagueneens will take on the Quebec Remparts.

The Wildcats have won seven straight games after a weekend sweep in Newfoundland. They'll now face an Islanders team that has won three straight.

The Wildcats are 4-1-0-1 against the Islanders this season but both losses came in their most recent meetings. Charlottetown defeated Moncton 6-5 in a shootout on Feb. 20 and 2-0 the next day. The Wildcats have lost just one time since then.

Chicoutimi, who have just one loss in their past eight games, is 6-0-0-0 against Quebec this season.

These weekend sets have meaning for the Islanders and Remparts as well as they continue to battle for positioning. The games Friday, at least, shouldn't feature any load management situations. We could certainly see that on Saturday depending on Friday results.

A few other notes...

• Every team in the league plays their final two regular season games on Friday and Saturday. 
• The Sea Dogs, who have lost four straight, will visit the Cape Breton Eagles, who have lost six straight, this weekend. 
• A couple teams that are hot right now: the Halifax Mooseheads have won four straight games while the Sherbrooke Phoenix are 9-0-1-0 in their last 10 games.
• Moncton is the only team with 100 points while Chicoutimi, with 99, is the only other team that could reach triple digits. The Wildcats had 108 points last year.
• At the bottom of the standings sit the Baie-Comeau Drakkar (34 points) and the Rimouski Oceanic (37 points), who will play each other twice this weekend. Both will miss the playoffs. The Oceanic have lost 24 straight games.
• In terms of the draft lottery, Saint John currently sits 15th overall in the QMJHL, which would give them the fourth best odds of winning. That position could still change.