The St. John’s Caps clinched a first-round East Coast Senior Hockey League playoff bye, defeating the Clarenville Ford Caribous 6-3 at Twin Rinks in St. John’s Friday night in the regular-season finale for both teams.
The Caps and Caribous entered the game tied for second place behind the defending champion Southern Shore Breakers, who had already completed their regular-season schedule and clinched first place.
With all six ECSHL teams advancing to the playoff, the league adopted a post-season format where the top two teams would advance directly to the semifinal round and wait for the results of quarter-final series featuring the remaining four teams. That meant Friday’s game at Twin Rinks was a play-in for that bye.
Jordan Escott had a four-point night with a goal and three assists for St. John’s.
The result means the Caribous will face the sixth-place Harbour Grace Ocean Enterprise CeeBee Stars in a best-of-five quarter-final.
The other opening-round series will feature The Bigs Northeast Eagles and Conception Bay Blues, who met in what was a quarter-final preview Friday night at Jack Byrne Arena in Torbay.
Brandon Bussey scored four times for the Eagles in an 8-4 Northeast win.
While the teams entered the game already knowing they would be first-round opponents, the Eagles win gives them fourth place and home-ice advantage in the series with the Blues.
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