PLAYOFF PREVIEW: Saints looking at long road for 3rd place

It's looking more and more likely that the two top seeds in the league, Coquitlam and New West, won't be relinquishing their spots atop the BCJALL. Something about the view being really nice up there.

That means we turn our attention how the final five teams in the playoffs will be seeded going into the playoffs. As you can see, just four points separate the 3rd place 11-8 Langley Thunder and 5th place 9-8 Port Coquitlam Saints. That's without taking into account the Saints have two games in hand on both the Thunder and Victoria. 

Let's take a look at how those three teams will end the year, and how that could possibly affect the standings. 

LANGLEY THUNDER

RECORD: 11-8, 3rd 

199 GF, 165 GA (+34 GD)

41% POWER PLAY, 67% SHORT MAN

SCHEDULE: Friday, June 30 at Port Coquitlam; Saturday, July 8 v. Nanaimo

With just two games left on the Thunder's schedule, Friday's game in Poco is making out to be one of the most important games of the campaign. 

The clubs have swapped a pair of games this season, the Saints taking an 8-5 win from Langley and the Thunder coming out 9-5 winners back in early May. 

If they can come away with a huge road win to take the season series, it likely ensures Langley at least a home game in July 8's wild card showdown. Given they also have the season series against Victoria, Langley may be in the best current position of the three teams. They also get the Timbermen coming to the mainland to end their season and may want to take advantage of that as well. 

PREDICTION: 12-9, 4th 

VICTORIA SHAMROCKS

RECORD: 10-9, 4th 

228 GF, 221 GA (+7 GD)

47% POWER PLAY, 51% SHORT MAN

SCHEDULE: Tuesday, July 4 v. Nanaimo; Saturday, July 8 v. Delta 

There are some of things Victoria do really well, which mostly include scoring goals. They have one of the highest goal per game averages in the league and have a number of players who can fill the net on any given night. But they also have difficulty stopping goals, allowing teams to go on runs that put games away or make it tough for the green and white to come back. 

But if they can hammer down on the D, they have the firepower to compete with either of the top two teams in a playoff series. 

They will be favourites to win their final two games against Nanaimo and Delta, which would leave them at 12-9, and even that may not be enough to get them out of a dreaded wild card game. 

PREDICTION: 12-9, 5th 

PORT COQUITLAM SAINTS  

RECORD: 9-8, 5th

183 GF, 149 GA (+34 GD)
36% POWER PLAY, 65% SHORT MAN

SCHEDULE: Friday, June 30 v. Langley; Sunday, June 2 v. Nanaimo; Monday, July 3 at Burnaby; Friday, July 7 v. Burnaby

With the most games left of any team in the league, these final four games will tell us a lot about the Saints ambitions for a deep playoff run. They're arguably the most experienced of the three contending clubs and have a favourable schedule that may allow them to put together a solid run of momentum going into the playoffs 

Getting Andrew Gallant has been huge for them as they were already one of the strongest defensive clubs in the league, and they've responded by really shutting things down on that end. That could be a recipe for success if they end up playing one of these two high-powered offenses in a one-off game. 

A four-game win streak to finish the year would give them a 13-8 record, third place and a bye into the second round, and that's obviously not out of the realm of possibilities. 

PREDICTION: 13-9, 3rd 

That would give us a potentially explosive wild card game, especially with Victoria and Langley putting up 33 goals between the two in their last meeting and 80 in their three games combined.