CCHL 2016 Inter-Conference play Notes by Dick “Dirty Mitts” Puxindeep

CCHL 2016 Inter-Conference play  Notes by Dick “Dirty Mitts” Puxindeep
December 29, 2015

Interleague play in the CCHL is now over, and to say it didn’t provide for some surprises would be an understatement.

The biggest surprise of course is that the Corfield Conference won the overall inter-conference play, but this article will look at some of the dominant teams, and teams that surprised during inter conference play.

The Dayton Musicmen continued their dominance this season in inter-conference play, sporting a 20-2 record against the Canosa crew.  If GM Bill Corfield had concerns about how his team would fare against the other conference, I’d say those fears should be put to rest; although two games separated will not provide the same true measure as a seven game final series would for the Musicmen.

In what would be one of the bigger surprises, the Wisborg Donuts went 13-8-1 in the 22 games against the Canosa to help them get within six points of a playoff spot in the Corfield Conference.

Fort Erie helped Wisborg as well, playing to a 10-10-2 record over that stretch; often starting Lindback or Jones against the heavy artillery of Copenhagen, Victoria and Reykjavik leading to the surprising .500 record.

The Norsemen of Minnesota surprisingly lost eight of their 13 games this season against the Corfield Conference; a surprise unto itself given how well Minnesota has played this season.  Those losses proved costly as well, as it caused Minnesota to drop to second in the conference.  While they only sit two points back of first, it could be hard to catch the surging Copenhagen Crusaders who went 17-4-1 over that stretch with some dominating victories over their Corfield Conference foes.

Winnipeg was a bit of a surprise as well, as they went 10-10-2 over the 22 game stretch and have yet to truly get rolling this season like they had at points last year.

The Siberia IceCats also benefitted from play against the Corfield Conference, winning seven of 22 contests.  While that record on the surface isn’t great, the ‘Cats more than doubled their win total prior to inter-conference play and vaulted themselves into double digit win totals much to the chagrin of GM Silvio Saouaf who had visions of Austin Matthews dancing in his head prior to this surge.

Calgary also really enjoyed feasting on Canosa Conference opponents, going 16-5-1 in the 22 game series, and looking fantastic at times.  Of course, when you have Carey Price in goal, he can help erase a lot of mistakes made in front of him while providing a great chance to win nightly.

If there is a team that is celebrating the end of inter-conference play more than the Victoria Ronin, I’d love to know who it is.  Yes we know Boston, Hamilton and Springfield struggled mightily during inter-conference play, but nobody expected a cup contender like Victoria to sport a 9-10-3 record against the Corfield.  After posting such a strong record within the tough Canosa Conference, Victoria should have done better against the Corfield on paper; alas that wasn’t to be for Crosby and company.

Finally, happy vacation wishes go out to the Canosa Conference doctors who can enjoy a vacation now that their team has played Niagara Falls for the season.  While Niagara went 14-6-2 during inter-conference play, their lasting legacy will be in the number of bruises they left the Canosa Conference with this season.  After playing the Thunder, the only wishes the Canosa Conference have is that the Thunder lay enough of a beating down on Dayton in the playoffs they’ll be in tough to win by the time the final starts.

Now here’s a look at the inter-conference overall standings for your viewing pleasure.

Dayton  20-2-0 40 pts
Copenhagen 17-4-1   35 pts
Calgary 16-5-1 33 pts
Niagara Falls 14-6-2 30 pts
Georgetown 14-6-2 30 pts
Wisborg 13-8-1 27 pts
Minnesota  12-8-2 26 pts
Reykjavik 12-9-1 25 pts
Long Island 11-8-3 25 pts
Seattle 11-9-2 24 pts
Sanibel 11-10-1 23 pts
Fort Erie 10-10-2 22 pts
Linz 10-10-2 22 pts
Winnipeg 10-10-2 22 pts
Victoria 9-10-3 21 pts
Montreal 7-13-2 16 pts
Siberia 7-14-1 15 pts
Halifax 5-15-2 12 pts
Portland 4-15-3 11 pts
Springfield 4-16-2 10 pts
Boston 3-16-3 9 pts
Hamilton 3-17-2 8 pts

What we can draw from this is that no matter who they are playing, teams like Dayton and Copenhagen are still dominant and could potentially meet in the CCHL finals.  While things can change over any given playoff series, these two have to be the favorites given their domination over the league as a whole.  Carey Price can certainly change that equation over a seven game series, but the target should be squarely on Copenhagen and Dayton as the season draws to a close.

About the author:
Dick “Dirty Mitts” Puxindeep has been a CCHL columnist since December of 2015.  When he’s not watching hockey or eating chicken wings, he can be found at local karaoke competitions performing his world famous rendition of ‘Baby Got Back’.  Dick knows what he knows and won’t stray from that.  Enjoy reading Dick’s semi-regular column here when he posts it.