By Stephen Dafoe
Morinville – The Jets ended the 2012-2013 CJHL regular season Tuesday night with a 4-1 loss to the Beverly Warriors.
Despite outshooting the Warriors 48-25, the Jets could not advance past a 1-1 deadlock that confronted them at the end of the first and second periods. The Warriors picked up their second midway through the final frame and advanced it by one on the powerplay with 7:06 left in the game. The fourth was scored on an empty net after the Jets pulled their backstop for an extra man in the hopes of moving the contest to overtime.
The Jets end the season with a 23-15-0 record and 46 points. The club’s fifth-place finish is a few notches down from the first-place finish the Jets notched out last year. Though the Jets did not lead the division in wins as they did last year, they did lead the league in penalty minutes. The Jets accumulated 1,705 minutes of penalties in 38 regular season games.
The team will enter the first round of CJHL playoffs within a few days, but who they play will not be known until Wednesday night. The North Edmonton Red Wings play their final game against the Hawks. If the Red Wings win they will unseat the Merchants from third spot, which would put the Jets and Merchants in the first round. A Red Wings loss will mean they remain in fourth place and take on the Jets in the first round.
