At this point in the CHL season teams settle in for the stretch drive to the playoffs. There’s a clear separation between contenders and pretenders as teams jockey for optimal playoff position.
Players who were moved at the deadline are feeling comfortable with their new teams and coaches are balancing practice time with rest periods to find a prime energy level.
We’ve had plenty of time to digest regular season play, so here are a few notable streaks that come to mind as we move into the final month of the regular season.
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9. Road Warriors
Moose Jaw owns two lengthy streaks of achieving points in road games. The Warriors opened their season with a loss in Brandon on Sept. 21, then reeled off a stretch of nine-straight road games in which they got at least a point that ran through Dec. 1. That streak was snapped in Calgary at the end of a week-long, four-game swing through the Central Division.
But then they started another run – this time it ran 10 games long — which started while head coach Tim Hunter was away at the world juniors. This streak included a 4-2 win in Prince Albert, which was just the Raiders’ second home loss to that point in the season.
The Warriors played at home just once in more than a month, giving them ample opportunity to keep the road streak alive until Jan 26. All told, Moose Jaw has won 22 of 28 games away from Mosaic Place.
8. Points Away
Alexis Lafreniere’s road points streak began on Dec. 5 when he had the game-winning goal in a 4-2 win at Drummondville. From there he had multi-point efforts in Shawinigan and Sherbrooke before leaving for the world juniors.
Usually a player experiences a drop-off in play when coming back from the WJC, especially an underaged one who was part of the first Canadian team to not medal on home ice. However, the phenom was not affected, racking up 18 points in the next nine roadies. All told, 12 road games for 26 total points.
If Lafreniere didn’t accomplish this at such a young age, we’d spend more time discussing other impressive road streak by Tye Felhaber of Ottawa (20 games) or Mitchell Balmas of Cape Breton (18 games).
7. J-Rob
Jason Robertson had an 18-game point streak, which began Nov. 2 while he was still a member of the Kingston Frontenacs. In his final eight games with Kingston, the Dallas Stars prospect put up 18 points and that would foreshadow his days as a Niagara IceDog.
Dealt from Kingston to Niagara on Nov. 20, Robertson produced three assists in his IceDogs debut. Over his next nine games as a member of Niagara he put up 24 more points for an 18-game total of 42 points.
Sudbury finally held him pointless, but Robertson is back on the scoring train again with at least one point in each of his past 12 games heading into Friday night.
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6. Felly Celly
When Tye Felhaber went through his exit meeting with Ottawa head coach and GM Andre Tourigny after last season, he asked what he could do better. The coach liked the player and his work ethic, but he challenged him to take his summer training to a new level.
Felhaber responded and is having a monster overage season that will lead to a pro contract. From Nov. 24 through Dec. 28, Felhaber sniped 15 goals over a 10-game stretch. One element that makes this feat so amazing is that the streak was spread over the Christmas break. Most often it takes players some time to get back into game shape during this period, but Felhaber scored in his first game back. He remains in the goal-per-game neighbourhood with 53 in 55 games.
5. Glass Half Full
Portland’s Cody Glass trained with Gary Roberts over the summer and that resulted in a good long look by Vegas in the fall. Once he was returned to Portland, though, he looked as comfortable as ever, racking up multi-point efforts in five of his first six games with the Winterhawks.
He’s been most impressive on home ice. The Golden Knights prospect played 21 home games from Sept. 29 through Jan. 23 and averaged more than two points per game, amassing a total of 47 points.
4. Sweet 17
Since the calendar flipped to 2019, the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies haven’t experienced a loss. A 17-game winning streak started Jan. 3 with a 2-1 win against Blainville-Boisbriand. The No. 1 team in the CHL, Rouyn-Noranda has Mario Pouliot at the helm and he knows what it takes to win it all after leading the Acadie-Bathurst Titan to a Memorial Cup title in the 100th edition last year in Regina.
The Huskies added Canadiens prospect Joel Teasdale and Islanders first-rounder Noah Dobson, who helped Pouliot to a title last year, at the before the trade deadline.
Ten of the 17 wins during this streak have come on the road and only two have needed extra time to complete. Eight different players have scored game-winners, led by Teasdale with five and Jakob Lauko with four.
Rouyn-Noranda has transitioned from Tourigny to Gilles Bouchard and now Pouliot at the helm and their winning tradition continues.
3. Hey 19
Prince Albert opened the season 7-0 before a 4-2 loss in Red Deer on Oct. 6. After that, things got crazy when Prince Albert reeled of 19-straight wins from Oct. 8 to Dec. 1. The No. 1 team in the CHL at the time (No. 2 now) wasn’t just winning, it was dominating, with an average margin of victory of 3.47 goals. The run included four shutouts.
Go figure, their streak came to an end on Dec. 4 when they were beat 3-2 in the shootout by last place Swift Current. Prince Albert’s regulation time win streak came to an end five nights later when the Blades held on for a 1-0 win on the strength of a 32-save effort by Nolan Maier.
2. Home-ice Disadvantage
As is the cyclical nature in the CHL, the defending champion Acadie-Bathurst Titan have struggled mightily this season. Only Cole Rafuse and Marc-Andre LeCouffe remain from the 2018 championship team.
Having sold the farm to shore up their 2017-18 push, GM Sylvain Couturier was busy over the trading period trying to restock the cupboards. They knew their team was going to be bad, but a 23-game home winless streak is a lot to ask your fans to endure. So much so, in fact, that management issued this letter back in December. The winless stretch at home began Oct. 7 and hasn’t let up. They’ve lost by a goal in regulation on four occasions and by way of overtime or shootout on three others. The Titan has seven home games remaining.
1. Leas the Streak
Brett Leason, the son of former CFL quarterback Darryl Leason, went through his first couple years in the WHL in relative anonymity. Through his first 93 games in the league, he put up just 24 points.
But something clicked after he was dealt from Tri-City to Prince Albert and Leason has not looked back. A summer working on skating propelled him to record at least one point in his first 30 games of the 2018-19 season. The streak ended one game before heading off to world junior camp. All told, however,he totalled 64 points in his 30-game point scoring streak, an amazing run that needs no other explanation.