It’s a new week coming up so it’s time to revisit the USHL standings. Omaha had a damn fine week–knocking off Sioux Falls with a five goal second period. Figures that I was so sick that day I couldn’t manage 15 feet from the nearest sewer-connected portal so ended up missing what might possibly be the best Lancers showing all season.
Lincoln didn’t fare as well, winning two of three on the week. They lose a game-in-hand on Sioux Falls but with both Lincoln and Omaha playing three last week, the Stars still have two in hand on the Lancers.
By virtue of the fine showing, the Lancers pick up a place in the points standings on Lincoln. The unadjusted standings look like this:
| TEAM | GP | W | L | OL | TP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sioux Falls | 41 | 29 | 10 | 2 | 60 |
| Fargo | 41 | 26 | 13 | 5 | 53 |
| Waterloo | 42 | 25 | 17 | 0 | 53 |
| Omaha | 42 | 25 | 17 | 0 | 50 |
| Lincoln | 40 | 23 | 14 | 3 | 49 |
| Tri-Town | 41 | 18 | 19 | 4 | 40 |
| Des Moines | 43 | 19 | 22 | 2 | 40 |
| Sioux City | 40 | 8 | 22 | 10 | 26 |
Looking over the table after two weeks, we also see Des Moines being overtaken by Tri-Town. The Good Life trophy participants are 4-5-6 in the standings, which makes for a more entertaining introductory season for the trophy at least. Also funny how the victories are pretty lopsided between them. Omaha pwns Lincoln who pwns Tri-Town who pwns Omaha.
But I digress. The whole point of this exercise is to weigh games-in-hand into the standings to give a better picture of how the playoff race is shaking out. If we count games in hand as +.5 games, an OT loss as -.5, wins as +1 and losses as -1 we get the following table:
| TEAM | GP | W | L | OL | GB | Playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sioux Falls | 41 | 29 | 10 | 2 | ||
| Waterloo | 41 | 26 | 14 | 1 | -3.5 | |
| Fargo | 42 | 24 | 13 | 5 | -4 | |
| Lincoln | 40 | 23 | 14 | 3 | -5 | |
| Omaha | 42 | 25 | 17 | 0 | -5.5 | -0.5 |
| Tri-Town | 41 | 18 | 19 | 4 | -10 | -5 |
| Des Moines | 43 | 19 | 22 | 2 | -11 | -6 |
| Sioux City | 40 | 8 | 22 | 10 | -16.5 | -11.5 |
Looking here, Omaha still hasn’t quite pushed Lincoln out of the playoff picture. Also noteworthy, Sioux Falls picks up a game on most of the league in the last two weeks. Coming up, both Omaha and Lincoln have relatively easy matchups visiting Des Moines and hosting Tri-Town respectively before meeting each other for the Battles on Ice. Yours truly will be in attendance at Teh Battlez and, if all goes according to plan, highly inebriated.
See you there!