The 2018-19 GWMHL regular season is in the books. 8 teams look ahead to the postseason; 12 more look ahead to the draft lottery.

In the Plante Conference, Salem barely stayed ahead of Parry Sound for top seed, while the El Dorado Lynx and Baltimore Crab round out the playoff-bound teams. It’ll be Salem vs. Baltimore and Parry Sound vs. El Dorado in the first round — that latter series should be a good one.

In the Sawchuk, the Farmington Fighting Saints came out of the pile of playoff pretenders to nab the final seed. The first round will see Delta face Farmington and Boston take on Ice Harbor.

Stay tuned for round 1 playoff previews, coming soon!

Winnipeg’s Jamie Benn takes the scoring crown with 109 points. He’d probably rather be heading to the postseason, but his first career scoring title is still a pretty good consolation prize. Benn was one of six Gump players to break the 100-point barrier on the year.

Vancouver’s Anders Lee put together a monster fourth quarter to emerge out of nowhere and tie West Virginia’s Patrik Laine for the goal-scoring lead with 51. Benn and teammate Tyler Seguin weren’t far behind with 49.

Anze Kopitar‘s +80 is the highest total by any player in 9 years. The Salem centre was also tied for the lead in shorthanded goals.

Fighting Saint John Carlson led all defensemen with 71 points, just one ahead of El Dorado veteran Jeff Petry, who surprised the league with 70 points. Young Adirondack rearguard Zach Werenski led defensemen in goals with 26, one ahead of Carlson’s 25.

The rookie scoring race was tight heading into the final quarter, but Vancouver’s Mathew Barzal pulled away big-time in the final 18 games, finishing with 83 points, 10 ahead of Salem’s Yanni Gourde. Boston rookie winger Brock Boeser tallied 35 goals in an injury-shortened freshman season.

The goaltender numbers have a less clear-cut leader, but Parry Sound’s Pekka Rinne may be the closest we’ve got — he finished second in GAA (2.38), save percentage (.928), and shutouts (6) behind three different netminders, plus led all goalies in wins, by a fair margin, with 39. Rinne was a big offseason add for the Orrsmen; the question now is whether he’ll be enough to bring them to the next level in the playoffs.