The Delisle Chiefs of the Prairie Junior Hockey League have two more games to go this month as the league’s January schedule comes to a close. They will be in Saskatoon tonight to take on the Westleys, and then they host the Royals at home on Saturday.

There are 10 games left in total as the Chiefs regular season finale is set for February 19th against the Silver Foxes at home. They should coast into a playoff spot if they continue their level of play seen all year, following a tough start that put them well behind the other top teams in the league.

They took a nice 8-0 win over Prince Albert the other night to take key points over them, and then Sunday’s game against the Royals will be big as only 2 points separate the teams at the time of this writing. Captain of the Chiefs Chad Westman was out of the lineup resting an injury during Wednesday’s win, but he is expected to be back in the lineup come this weekend.

PJHL Standings Jan 28 2022PJHL Standings on January 28th

If they need some motivation headed into the last month of play, they certainly have it as their captain closes out his career with the Chiefs. The Plenty native was recently celebrated as the Delisle Chiefs all-time leader in games played, and still has a chance this year to etch himself into a few top 10 spots for other PJHL all-time stat categories, as well as other Chiefs’ records. If Westman himself needs motivation, he can just look to his coach and general manager in Eric Ditto, who sits ahead of him in every stat category in play other than games played.

West Central Online spoke to both the parties in question, asking them to compare playing styles.

“I could put up some points, but he does everything. He’s better probably in the defensive zone, and he’s more physical than I was,” said Ditto of his captain.

Westman said ‘ditto’ to his coaches comment.

“He led the PJHL in points for quite a while. I think that was broken only 4-5 years ago,” Westman said about his coaches past, before speaking on his present skill on skates, “In practice he’s not bad out there. I think he’s probably lost a bit from when he way playing junior for sure, but I would have to watch some game film on him because I’ve never seen him play,” he laughed.

Together Westman and Ditto have exemplified what it means to play junior hockey in Delisle, and hope they can come together and lead their capable Chiefs team to success. The last two seasons were pandemic affected, with last year seeing no playoffs at all after the previous year was shut down headed into the second round. Again the team should be a lock to make the playoffs, and Westman likes what he sees from the team in blue this year.

“I think we got a pretty good team built. All four lines have definitely been picking it up as of late. Secondary scoring, goalies have been unbelievable all year. That’s what we need I think.”

Westman surely would have added to his team leading 44 points during Wednesday’s 8-0 drubbing vs PA, but it’s the wins that matter, and Westman and his team will look to start another win streak after rebounding from a pair of weekend losses to Fort Knox and Pilot Butte.