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Win one of their final two games this weekend, and the Nipissing Lakers men's hockey team clinches third place in the OUA East division.
With that comes the right to avoid the first-place McGill Redmen until the East final, although the way things are tightening up in the division, any team is beatable and you have to be careful what you wish for.
Should the Lakers (15-7-4) win both their weekend games, the opportunity might be there to host an extra single-game playoff to earn a spot in the national championships, where the OUA has been given three spots in the six-team tournament this season.
There are a lot of scenarios throughout the OUA that will unfold on this final weekend of the regular season.
The Lakers host the Ryerson Rams (13-11-3) Friday at 7 p.m., a team that will be playing its final regular-season game either still scratching for the final playoff spot or looking to play their way into a fifth-or sixth-place position to possibly face Nipissing in the first round.
We've talked about what we want to do and we'll stick to that," said Lakers head coach Mike McParland. What's important for us is to accumulate the points with the foresight of hoping we make it at least to the division final.
You don't want to put the cart before the horse, but if you ever did get to the division final and lost, the team with the most points would host that one-game playoff (for a third OUA berth at nationals), so that's important.
You have to have that in case that situation does come."
With 34 points, the Lakers trail second-place UQTR's 38 points (18-6-2) and McGill's 44-point total (21-4-2) in the East. They are even with the second-place team in the West, the Lakehead Thunderwolves (17-9-0).
The Lakers could get a boost Friday from what is expected to be a large home crowd during Fan Appreciation Night.
The Lakers have averaged 1,416 fans per game through 13 home dates, but a crowd of 2,000-plus is expected.
We're going to try to get the crowd into it early," McParland said. That's our goal, and hopefully, we can carry that through 60 minutes."
McParland expects defenceman Brodie Beard, who missed Saturday's game in Toronto to injury, to be available, while defence partner Jordan Gallea is unlikely to be ready.
Following the game, the Lakers will board the bus for a trip to Kingston, where they wrap up the regular season on the road Saturday against the Queen's Gaels (13-11-2).