After another successful three game road trip, the Dogs are back on the ice this weekend when the Quesnel Millionaires visit the Pound Saturday night for the second last regular season home game for the Dogs. After playing three games in each of the two weeks prior to this one, the Dogs will certainly welcome having only one game on their schedule this week.
The Bulldogs enter this week with a record of 43-11-1 and 2 which is good for 89 points. With the Coastal Conference regular season title secured the Dogs don?t have anything to play for besides chasing team records and getting ready for the playoffs. And you can bet that the Coaching Staff will be for the most part ignoring the former and instead putting all their focus on the latter. The team records that the Bulldogs can potentially break are for most wins – the current club is tied with the 2005-2006 team with 43 – and most points, as once again the record is held by the 05-06 team that picked up 91 points in the regular season.
The Millionaires enter play Friday night with a record of 20-30-0 and 5, good for 45 points and 5th place in the Interior Conference. While no one from the bottom part of the Interior Conference will be able to climb higher than 5th place, there is a log jam from 5th and down to 8th with the Millionaires leading the 6th placed Merritt Centennials by just three points. The Trail Smoke Eaters are just a point back of the Cents, while the Price George Spruce Kings are just four points back of them for the final playoff berth.
While the Millionaires aren?t fighting for their playoff lives, they are still at the same time in a major battle to hold on to their position to avoid a match up in the first round against Vernon, Penticton, or Westside. The Mills will have had a busy week by the time they get into the Valley on Saturday, as they opened their Island swing with a 7-6 win in Cowichan on Wednesday night. They face the Clippers in Nanaimo on Friday night before travelling to Alberni Saturday and then finishing their trip in Victoria on Sunday.
The only previous meeting between these teams was in Quesnel on December 13th where the Dogs pulled out a hard fought 3-2 win at the end of a three-in-three road trip. It was a big afternoon for the top line and for Frank Slubowski. Mitch, Mark, and David all had three point games with Mitch picking up two power play goals and Mark picking up the other, again on the man advantage. David Dziurzynski assisted on all three markers. Frank Slubowski was named the second star of the game as he was huge down the stretch turning away 32 shots.
If the last game between these teams was any indication this should be a good one, as the Dogs chase records while focusing on getting ready for the first round bye while the Millionaires try to nail down 5th spot in the Interior Conference. It seems unbelievable that this is the second last regular season home game but that?s indeed the case as the Dogs have just two games left after this weekend.
Catch the pregame show from the Dog Pound on 93.3 The Peak FM at 6:45 with the puck dropping at 7:00pm. Listen live on 93.3 The Peak or www.933thepeak.com
