Hartley’s Sports Shorts; Thursday, March 20th

Sports by Hartley Thursday, March 20th, 2025

(As of 12:05 a.m. All times listed are PST)

WHL:

Victoria Royals  5  Kelowna Rockets  3

The game summary is here.

The Prince George Cougars, who have won nine of their last 10 games, host Victoria to close out their regular season Friday and Saturday.

The (39-17-3-7) Royals lead the BC Division by two points over the (40-20-4-2) Cougars.

P.G. will need to win both games in order to finish first in the division.

Victoria needs just one win to take top spot.

The tie-breaking procedure is here.

Prince George has the fewest home regulation losses in the WHL (with a 23-4-3-2 record at CN Centre).

The Cougars start the playoffs at home on Friday, March 28th and Saturday, March 29th against either Portland, Vancouver or Tri-City.

Playoff tickets went on sale Wednesday afternoon.

It’s officially whiteout season at the CN Centre!

The @PGCougars‘ home-ice advantage starts on Friday, March 28.

📝 | https://t.co/JmUxU1Wu4W
🎟️ | https://t.co/UUqeWom6l3 pic.twitter.com/fuxjZwZ8HW

— Western Hockey League (@TheWHL) March 18, 2025

The WHL Conference standings are here.

BC Elite Hockey League:

The bests-of-3 BC Elite Hockey League finals will be featured this weekend.

The Under-18 Cariboo Cougars host the Okanagan Rockets at Kin 1 Friday night at 7:45, Saturday night at 4:45 and if needed Sunday morning at 10:45.

The winner goes to Alberta for the Pacific playdowns April 4th-6th.

In the Female division, the U-18 Northern Capitals visit the Greater Vancouver Comets in Coquitlam Friday night at 5:00, Saturday night at 5:45 and if needed Sunday afternoon at 1:00.

The BC Elite Hockey League playoff results can be found here or here.

The BC Elite Hockey League playoff schedule can be found here 

The final BC Elite Hockey League regular season standings are here.

NHL: (2 Wednesday games with one Canadian team in action)

Toronto  2  Colorado  1
Minnesota  4  Seattle  0

The (32-25-11) Vancouver Canucks, with just 14 games left, start a 6-game road trip tonight (4:30) at St. Louis.

It is one of 14 Thursday games in the NHL with all 7 Canadian teams in action.

The Canucks and the (34-28-7) Blues are tied for the 2nd and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference, two points ahead of the  (31-25-11) Calgary Flames.

#

Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals host the Philadelphia Flyers tonight (4:00).

The 39-year-old Ovechkin is 8 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career record of 894.

The (45-15-8) Caps have 14 regular season games left.

The NHL schedule and results are here or here.