The Twin City Thunder are getting hot at the right time.
They extended their regular-season win streak to five Friday night against the South Shore Kings, and are currently 16-14-2 with a month left in the USPHL regular season.
The Thunder holding the sixth and final playoff spot in the New England division and have a six-point lead over the Boston Junior Bruins (34 points for the Thunder and 28 for the Bruins), who are in last place in the division.
“Obviously, one of our goals is to make the playoffs,” Thunder coach Doug Friedman said Friday night after the 5-2 win over the Kings. “South Shore is right ahead of us and Bruins are nipping at our heels. It’s going to be a close and exciting final month and a half of the season here.”
The victory Friday closed gap between South Shore and the Thunder, as the Kings are currently in fifth place with 40 points.
Eight of Twin City’s final 12 games will be against divisional rivals. Four of those will be against the Jr. Bruins and Kings — the Thunder face each team twice.
Twin City is 0-2 this season against the Jr Bruins and 1-1 against the Kings.
Friedman isn’t looking at potential playoff seeding or opponents just yet.
“I feel our (division) is very competitive and also very tight,” Friedman said. “Anybody can beat anybody. We just really need to focus on ourselves and taking each game at one at a time and not worrying about the remainder of the teams that we are playing or not playing.”
The top two teams in the division receive first-round byes. The Boston Bandits hold the No. 1 seed with 51 points, and the Northern Cyclones are two points behind. Both teams have clinched spots in the postseason.
If the playoffs started today, the Thunder would play the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs — the No. 3 seed with 43 points — in the first round in a three-game series. The No. 4 Islanders Hockey Club, who also have 43 points, would face South Shore.
The teams are reseeded in the second round. So the No. 1 seed will play the lowest remaining seed, and the No. 2 seed will play the other first-round winner, also in three-game series.
The third round decides the divisional champion, which will move onto a round-robin tournament in mid-March against the other divisional champions to determine the league champion.
When will the Nordiques clinch?
The L/A Nordiques are playoff-bound. They already have clinched a playoff spot and have all but assured themselves the No. 1 seed in the Coastal Division. They are 34-3 with 68 points, a 14-point cushion over No. 2 Northeast Generals, who are 26-7-2 with 54 points.
The Nordiques have 10 games remaining and the Generals have 12 games.
How far are the Nordiques from clinching the Coastal Division? If they defeat the Maine Wild the next two Wednesdays, they will enter the series with the Generals on February 2-3 with 72 points. The Generals have four games before the series, so they can have up to 62 points.
If the Nordiques sweep the home-and-home series against Northeast in regulation they will have 76 points to the Generals’ 62. Northeast at that point will have only six games remaining and could only get a maximum of 74 points.
The Feb. 2 game will be in Lewiston at 7 p.m. The teams will travel to Attleboro, Massachusetts, the following day, Super Bowl Sunday
Uncommon pace
L/A defensemen JP Chauvin and Cole Ouellette on pace on something hasn’t been done in the NA3HL in five seasons. Chauvin currently leads the league with a plus-89 while Ouellette is at a plus-87.
There hasn’t been a player in the NA3HL who has reached over the plus-100 plateau since North Iowa Bulls Matt Kroska had a plus-107 and teammate Rihards Marenis was a plus-103.
No makeup yet
The Thunder were suppose to host the Kings for the second straight night in a row Saturday at Norway Savings Bank Arena, but the game was postponed due to the impending storm.
Friedman said a decision will be made this week for when the game will be played.
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