SteelHounds eye the playoffs with 25 games remaining

Youngstown is trying to pursue its second straight postseason berth.

By TOM WILLIAMS

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — As the final two months of the Central Hockey League’s regular season commence, the Youngstown SteelHounds control their fate in their pursuit of their second straight playoff berth.

“Right now, we’re in playoff position, that’s all you can ask for,” said Eric Przepiorka who is tied with Chris Richards with a team-leading 45 points. “Obviously, we’d like to be at the top of our division and the top of our conference.

“But it’s in our hands to keep that playoff position — that’s a good position to be in,” Przepiorka said.

With 25 games to play, the SteelHounds (23-14-2, 48 points) are fifth in the Northern Conference. Unlike last season when six CHL teams qualified for the playoffs from each conference, only five will make it this spring.

The new format gives a bye to the first, second and third seeds. The fourth and fifth seeds will play a best-of-three series, with the winner advancing to play the top seed. All other series are best-of-seven matchups.

Bossier-Shreveport and Rocky Mountain are the leaders for the Northeast and Northwest divisions. The division winners will receive the top two seeds. Colorado and Mississippi also are ahead of the SteelHounds in the standings.

Of the SteelHounds’ remaining games, 17 of them will be played at the Chevrolet Centre. After this weekend’s road games at Odessa (Texas) and Oklahoma City, the SteelHounds will fly home to prepare for an eight-game homestand that begins Tuesday at 10:35 a.m. against the Texas Brahmas.

“When we come back, we’re playing in our division again,” SteelHounds coach Kevin Kaminski said. “That’s going to be a huge eight games. We’ve got to win six or seven out of the eight. When we’re in our own barn, there’s no reason not to.”

The SteelHounds closed January with three-game series against Bossier-Shreveport and Rocky Mountain, the CHL’s top two teams. After going 1-2 against the Mudbugs, the SteelHounds took two out of three from the Rage.

Sunday’s game, a 5-1 victory, featured a fight between goalies Andy Franck and Scott Reid that was prompted by Mark Johnson’s first of two goals.

“I didn’t even get to celebrate — I haven’t scored for a while so that was tough,” said Johnson who was the first to face Reid’s wrath.

Franck skated to the opposite end of the rink when the players paired off and Johnson was escorted to the penalty box.

“It’s always nice to see [teammate support], especially for Frankie to step up when their guys is taking cheap shots,” Przepiorka said. “For him to go down and help, that shows how much we care about each other on this team.

“In my career, I had never seen two goalies go at it.”

Johnson earned another chance to celebrate when his third-period goal gave the SteelHounds a 4-1 lead.

“It was a great pass from Preziorka on a two-on-one and I went in and scored,” Johnson said of his fifth goal. “It was a good feeling to get the win.”

Johnson called the Rage a great team.

“They have tons of firepower, good goaltending, they’re great on the back end,” Johnson said. “So to take two out of three from these guys is good.”

Przepiorka was impressed with Sunday’s play especially after the SteelHounds’ flat performance in Saturday’s 7-1 lost.

“That definitely shows a lot of character on our team,” Przepiorka said.

Franck, who played the entire 60 minutes Sunday, called the Rage “the hottest team in the league, they have [fewer] than 10 losses. They came in with guys who in their past 10 games have scored 30+ points. That’s unbelievable. We knew they had firepower, we just came together.”

williams@vindy.com