The Rapid City Rush have clinched no worse than second place in the Central Hockey League’s Northern Conference, but the battle for first place — and home-ice advantage throughout the conference playoffs — is likely to go down to the wire.
Third-place Bossier-Shreveport, trails conference-leading Rapid City by 13 points with a maximum of 12 points available in the Mudbugs six remaining games in the regular season.
Second-place Colorado is just four points behind Rapid City with six games left in the Eagles’ regular season schedule.
Rapid City owns the tie-breaker, a 6-3-1 head-to-head record, against the Eagles this season
“We don’t play Colorado or Bossier again, but we’re assured of finishing no less than second, so all we can do is take care of what we can take care of, play our own game,” Rapid City head coach Joe Ferras said. “We’re not expecting any help from Colorado.”
That’s because the Eagles have a more favorable schedule the rest of the way, with four of six remaining games against opponents with losing records. The only team above .500 on the slate, Tulsa, has lost all three previous games against Colorado.
In the meantime, six of the next seven games for the Rush are against teams not just with winning records, but the three top teams in the Southern Conference down the stretch.
After Tuesday night’s showdown with Odessa, The Rush finish off their home schedule against the Allen Americans on Friday and Saturday night and then host third-place Texas on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Ice Arena.
Rapid City finishes on the road at Amarillo and Odessa.
“The bottom line is we’ve got to put together some wins up to stay four points ahead of Colorado,” Ferras said. “We know they’ve got a little easier run than we do, so we’ve got to make sure we play our game and be ready to go.”
Rapid City is also in the hunt for the CHL’s Governor’s Cup trophy, going to the team with the highest point total regardless of conference. The Rush trail Southern Conference leader Odessa by just three points, meaning Tuesday night’s outcome plus the season finale on the Jacks home ice on March 20 will play a huge role.
“You have to take it one game at a time. You can’t look ahead in this league or you’ll get beat,” Ferras said.
