Highlanders/Bladerunners in Virtual Tie, Severed Heads Pass 700pts, Scourge Within 5 of Omnivore Lead

When the dust settled on a busy Saturday night of hockey, not much had changed. The Highlanders edged even closer to the Predator Cup lead but the Bladerunners will not willingly stand aside and, with little more than a point between them, the Bladerunners continue to cling to top spot. The Highlanders are having the best week, so far, in the pool at over 43pts but they had a good gap to make up at the start of the week and haven't quite done it yet.

In terms of milestones, the Severed Heads became the 5th team to cross the 700pt mark this season, doing it the same week as the Shadowmen and with the Wolves only 6pts away from doing the same tonight. Both the Ramapithicines and Lost Boys are poised to join the club next week.

The Highlanders' strong play this week may finally resolve the playoff participants for the Challenge Cup. Going into Sunday's games the Kilted Ones hold a 16pt lead on the Personal Vendetta. Should the Highlanders win, they will secure themselves a place in the post-season. The Vendetta are not alone in thier disappointment. The Wolves and Great Whites are also losing in their games this week so their fate would appear to have been set even had the Vendetta prevailed. The other Challenge Cup question has to do with seeding. The Shadowmen look poised to defeat the Severed Heads and ensure that they will finish as the second seed, the Bladerunners (should they hold on to win their game) will be the first seed, but their opponents in the opening round could be either the Severed Heads or the Highlanders. The Highlanders (if tied with the Severed Heads going into the final week) would need to win their final match of the season against the Edge while the Severed Heads would have to lose their match against the Wolves to push the Highlanders ahead of them in the standings as the Severed Heads would win any tie-breaker with the Highlanders.

In the Omnivore race the story continues to be the surging Scourge. Now 23pts clear of the last place Edge, the Scourge are only 4pts away from passing the Bladerunners in the Omnivore. The play of Henrik Zetterberg is obviously a big part of their recent climb up the ladder. One potential problem to their gaudy numbers is the return of T.Vokoun. At the moment, he is not the baseline goalie for the Scourge but with Huet's injury, expect Vokoun to begin to eat into those Scourge numbers.

A healthy number of games on tap for today and tonight, until then here are the unofficial stats as of Saturday night: