As the regular season winds down, everyone starts to think about the playoffs – an intense 8-game march culminating in a glorious trophy presentation at the Ozaukee Ice Center.

In the OCHL Novice League, there isn’t all that much left to decide, standings-wise.

Entech has clinched first place.  Ice Shack has clinched second place.  Milwaukee Express has clinched third place.  Gecko and Concordia are tied in points with two games left, and Gecko holding the tiebreaker.

Seth Levine, Milwaukee Express executive vice president of roster maintenance, tells us that they’re probably going to switch some things up going into these last two games of the regular season.

“We don’t want anybody getting hurt,” Levine said.  “In game 20 last year, we lost one of our best defenseman and best skaters to a knee injury.  We’re not going to let that happen again this year.”

Levine says that they’re going to rest some players over the last two weeks.  And by “some players”, he actually means “ALL PLAYERS”.

“We can’t afford to have any injuries.  So everyone is going to watch the game from the press box for the next two Sundays.”

What game is there going to be to watch if everyone is a healthy scratch? 

 Levine says he’s about to sign some new players to PTO contracts.

“Captain Sutliffe is one of the head coaches of the Ozaukee Youth Hockey Squirt Blue team, and after a nice run in the Rhinelander tournament, some of these kids deserve a chance for us to see what they can do in the OCHL.”

“To be honest, I doubt our opponents will know the difference,” Sutliffe said.  “Our squirts may not be the fastest skaters at the level, much like Milwaukee Express. But our squirts work hard together, and the way they play is greater than the sum of their parts…..just like Express.

“Although, they’re all a little shorter.  So some of our opponents MAY notice the difference.  The rest of them will see a really short person in a dark blue jersey and assume it’s Eric Kent.”

Levine stresses that the team needs to be fresh for the tournament if they want to repeat as the champions.

“We could play anywhere from 2 to 5 games in the tournament.  With fresh legs and a clean bill of health, I like our chances.”