The Chatham Maroons' readiness ahead of the playoffs will be tested over their final weekend of the regular season with three tough matchups in the next four nights.
First up, the team is set to take on the second-place Leamington Flyers on the road Thursday night. That will be followed by games against first-place London on Saturday and third-place St. Marys on Sunday for the Maroons' final game of the regular season.
Looking ahead at the schedule, Maroons head coach Tyler Roeszler said another weekend of three games in four nights should be a good test for them.
"You're going to be playing every other day in the playoffs anyway... it seems like every team has the same schedule where they're playing three games every week in the last two weeks," said Roeszler. "There's no excuse to be rusty heading into playoffs... and this time of year the guys want to play."
Chatham is currently in fifth place and locked into a first-round playoff matchup with the LaSalle Vipers. Home ice advantage has yet to be decided for that series, though.
With three games left on their regular-season schedule, the Maroons are trailing the Vipers by just two points. Chatham also has a game in hand on LaSalle, but the Vipers hold the tie-breaker in case both teams finish with the same amount of points.
"[We're] very similar teams -- strong and deep up front, solid on the back end, both have good, young goalies," said Roeszler on the upcoming first-round series with LaSalle. "It should be a heck of a series... a lot of the players know each other and I don't think you could ask for a better first-round matchup."
You can hear every Chatham Maroons game from now until the end of the playoffs -- including Thursday's matchup in Leamington -- on-air on Country 92.9FM / 630 AM CFCO or online by clicking here.
Puck drop for Thursday's game is set for 7:10 p.m. at the Leamington Kinsmen Recreation Complex.