The Western Kings gave themselves an early Christmas present over the weekend with a pair of wins in provincial major midget hockey play in Lewisporte.
By beating the Central IcePak 9-5 on Saturday and 6-5 in overtime on Sunday, the Kings (24-1-1-0) have clinched first place in the NLMMHL, even though the league’s regular season won’t finish until mid February.
Regulation wins in the league are worth three points. The St. John’s Maple Leafs, (13-0-7-2) who downed the East Coast Blizzard 4-3 Sunday at the Glacier in Mount Pearl, are 33 points behind the Kings, but have just 1o games —or 30 points worth — remaining. That includes a make-up of what was supposed to be a Saturday contest against the Blizzard (6-3-13-1) , cancelled when the Glacier was closed because of weather.
The Tri-Pen Osprey, idle over the weekend are 5-5-13-3, while Central is 3-0-17-3.
The four-item record lines are necessary because the NLMMHL awards three points for a regulation-time win (first column), two points for an overtime or shootout win (second column) and one point for an overtime or shootout loss (fourth column). The third column is for regulation-time losses,
