Ice’s back to back wins vs Canadiens set up for tight races in last month: NEAJBHL

Image credit: Cold Lake Ice. Some playoff races tighten, some tiers in the standings have been established. But will Cold Lake continue to beat St. Paul? 

We are one month away from the end of the North Eastern Alberta Junior B Hockey League regular season, which puts the spotlight on each team’s remaining slate of games in the push toward the post-season. 

The Cold Lake Ice have buoyed closer to .500 on the year, with two wins against the St. Paul Canadiens – one right before the Christmas break, and one right after. 

Now sitting at 11-13 and 6th in the standings, they are just three points behind the Vegreville Rangers for 5th. 

Why that becomes compelling is that the St. Paul Canadiens sit 4th, tied in points with Vermilion Tigers, but the Tigers have two games in hand. 

Depending on how the regular season finishes, we could see these two rivals lock horns in the first round of the NEAJBHL playoffs.

Oh and by the way, these teams play again at the Clancy Richard Arena on Friday night.

Cold Lake will then host Vermilion on Saturday, while St. Paul goes to Killam.

Wainwright & Lloyd jockey for tops

For now, it’s a familiar sight at the top of the standings in the Wainwright Bisons, whose 21-5 record is three points better than the Lloyd Bandits.

While the Bandits do have a game in hand, there are no more head-to-head matchups between these two teams this season.

Wainwright beat Lloyd 5-4 last Saturday to claim the edge in the standings.

The Bandits have a 3-2 record against the Bisons this season, but the Bisons won the last two games.

Tigers look to claw up

Looming in the 3-seed again is the Vermilion Tigers, who were up in the race for first before a three game losing skid before the break.

Tied in points with St. Paul but with two games in hand, the Tigers have the most games to play yet with still 12 remaining.

They’d like to first shore up that 3-seed and clarify their record with the Canadiens, who’ve gotten the best of them two out of three so far. Two head-to-heads remain there.

Having had a top-heavy schedule to start, they have one game each left against Lloyd and Wainwright to try and climb, but it seems unlikely at this moment, especially considering those teams’ remaining schedules.

Stranger things have happened, and they are eight back of Lloyd for 2nd.

Basement Border Chiefs

Will Onion Lake get a win this season?

The Border Chiefs have been the league’s doormat this year with a crisp 0-25 record.

If not, they are going to extend their losing streak to beyond two calendar years.

Onion Lake’s last win was Feb. 3, 2023 against the Cold Lake Ice. Since then, it’s a 60-some game losing streak, and counting.

The closest result this season was Nov. 22, 2024 against those same Ice, a 4-1 defeat.

Otherwise, the Border Chiefs are surrendering almost 13.5 goals per game — more than 200 more goals than the next team in the Killam Wheat Kings — while only scoring a total of 27 all year.