The time has come for postseason hockey in the Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association, with two local teams shooting for deep playoff runs. 

Last year’s Varsity 1A champion, the Freeburg-Waterloo Raging Bulldogs finished last in 2A this season at 8-13-3. 

The Raging Bulldogs closed out their regular season with a 4-3 loss to O’Fallon on Thursday. Scoring goals for Freeburg-Waterloo were Layne Wilkens, Kole Schilling and Ryder Neff. Logan Sherman made 34 saves in net. 

Wilkens, the senior captain, leads the Raging Bulldogs in scoring this season with 18 goals and 15 assists.

As the sixth seed, Freeburg-Waterloo faces No. 3 seed Granite City in the first round of the MVCHA Varsity 2A playoffs. The top two seeds, Edwardsville and O’Fallon, received byes. The other first round playoff matchup in 2A is Collinsville vs. Vianney. 

The best-of-three series for the Raging Bulldogs begins 7:30 p.m. Monday in Granite City. Game two is 9 p.m. Tuesday at McKendree Metro Rec Plex in O’Fallon. Game three, if needed, takes place 8:30 p.m. Feb. 13 in Granite City. 

In Varsity 1A, Columbia (16-5-3) finished the regular season in first place and thus received a first round playoff bye.  

The Eagles concluded regular season play Thursday with an 8-3 victory over Triad on Thursday. 

Jack Reuss, the MVCHA’s leading scorer with 50 goals and 20 assists this season, netted a hat trick and dished out four assists.  Anderson Judy and Kaden Ross scored twice each. 

In addition to the scoring punch of Reuss, Columbia has the league’s seventh best goaltender in terms of goals against average – that being senior Dalton Fitzgerald. He allows 2.57 goals per game with an .889 save percentage. 

The Varsity 1A playoff matches are Triad vs. Highland, Bethalto vs. Alton, and East Alton-Wood River vs. Belleville, all of which take place next week.