The early game saw the Stars continue their hot streak by beating the Flyers 5-2.
The first part of the game was pretty quiet until both teams each scored a goal late in the first period to make it 1-1 going into the second. The Stars took over in the second period and held a 4-1 lead going into the third.
Half-way through the third, the Flyers started to take advantage of the short bench of the Stars. The Flyers scored one with eight minutes to go in the third and laid on the pressure throughout the rest of the period. Stars goaltender, Dave Noorloos came up big and held off the Flyers from scoring anymore goals. Curt Moesker scored his second goal of the game into the empty net to seal the win for the Stars.
For his efforts, Dave Noorloos earns the Player of the Game.

In the middle game, the Hawks held off a Cattle Barons come-back for a 4-2 victory.
The Hawks got on the scoreboard first and held a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period. The Cattle Barons scored the only goal in the second, and they tied it up at 2-2 early in the third. In the last half of the third period, Dave VanOostveen scored his second & third goals of the game to give the Hawks the 4-2 win. Dave will share the Player of the Game honours with Kyle Huizinga, who had an assist on all four of the Hawks' goals.
Mike Ward made some spectacular saves in this game for the Hawks, as did Dave Noorloos, who was playing "fill-in" goalie for the Cattle Barons.

The late game between the Omegas & IceDogs was a battle of the teams separated by just a couple of points for third & fourth position. The IceDogs came out on top of this one with a 6-5 overtime win.
The IceDogs looked like they were going to run away with it when they ended the first period up 3-0. Four minutes into the second period, the Omegas had it all tied up at 3-3. The teams each scored one more to end the second period with a score of 4-4.
Things settled down a bit in the third. The IceDogs took the lead again early in the period and held it looked like this goal would stick as the game winner. It looked that way until Jeff VanderSlagt scored with six seconds to go in regulation to tie it up and send the game to overtime.
In overtime, Matt DeBoer scored the game winner for the IceDogs.
Jordan DeBoer is the Player of the Game in this one. He scored a hat-trick for the IceDogs & assisted on Matt's game winner.

In some of the early drafts of the schedule, it showed that if the playoffs go the distance, then game three of the finals would be played on Friday, March 28. This is incorrect. It should read: Saturday, March 29.
More details about times & locations of the playoff games can be found in the "Schedule" section of this website.

Oh how the season is flying by.

With just five games to go, the standings are still wide open. Who will finish in what position? At this point, only the Hawks have secured a playoff spot, however, their seeding is still far from being settled.

The Hawks currently sit in first with 23 points. The Flyers are in second place with 21 points.
After that, the standings get a little tighter. Three teams look to be in a dog-fight for the final two playoff spots. The IceDogs sit in third place with 17 points, while the Omegas hold the final playoff position with 15 points. The Stars have been hot as of late and have really fought their way back into the thick of the playoff race. They currently are sitting in fifth with 13 points, and are only two points behind the Omegas for the final playoff position.
The Cattle Barons have been involved with some heart-breakers. They have been in most of the games, only to fall short near the end. With their most recent loss, they have been mathematically eliminated from competing in this season's playoffs.

Here's a few stats to prove how close our games have been so far this season:
Out of the 45 games played this season, 36 of them have been within three goals (80%). 28 of those games have been within a two goal spread (62%). I can tell you that most of those games with a two goal spread would've been a "one goal game" if not for empty netters. Sixteen games have been within a goal. Nine games have gone into overtime, and five of those have ended in a tie.

Its pretty obvious that the final five weeks of the regular season will all be big games. Some of the teams have already been playing playoff type of hockey for a while now, and its sure to continue for the remainder of the season.

O.J. Deelstra, of the Cattle Barons, passed the 30 minute mark in penalties. He is suspended from playing in the next game (on January 24). He will not be eligible to play again until the game on February 7.

Since we have now passed the 15 game mark of the season, any players that have not yet played any games have been removed from their teams rosters. They will not be eligible to play for the rest of the season or playoffs. Here is the list of players that have been removed from the rosters:

Cattle Barons: Eric Bakker, Brad Clark, & Mike Melo.

Flyers: Josh DeGroot, Chris Griffen, Rob Veenendaal, & Matt Steadman.

Hawks: Kyle Barneveld, John DeBoer, Brad Pelleboer, Bryan Schenk, & Brian Solomon.

IceDogs: Kevin Bouma, Wesley DeBoer, Wayne DeBoer, Dan Dykshoorn, Mike Kaldeway, Nick Vanderwal, & Scott McGlyn.

Omegas: Perrin Berg, Karsten Berg, Kalen Hellinga, Adam Kapteyn, Zach Kapteyn, Will Marut, Kyle Roest, Fred VanReenen Sr., Matt Zylstra, & Herbie Zylstra Jr.

Stars: Dallas Fraser, Charlie Heimstra, Scotty Maidmen, Corey Moesker, Steve Sipkens, Tim Vanderlinde, & Jonny Wagenaar.