On ice, it’s MSHL tournament time

Regardless of the outcome, both sectional finalists will advance to the regional playoffs, which are, in effect, the state’s elite eight. In the original playoff design, there wasn’t going to be a Montgomery sectional final, but coaches clamored for a way to decide the county title.

‘‘Some people said, ‘Why do we need another game?’” B-CC coach J.T. Burton said. ‘‘Basically, it’s all for bragging rights. But I didn’t understand why you wouldn’t want to have the game. The kids wanted, so they have bragging rights with their club teammates.”

Friday’s game also has implications for placement in the next round, however. The loser must travel to Frederick and play the champion of the Monocacy Valley League, most likely last year’s state runner-up Linganore (10-2).

The winner will stay in the county and play either Good Counsel (11-0-0) or St. John’s-D.C. (6-5-1). The Falcons and Cadets are Washington Catholic Athletic Conference schools that opted out of the new Mid-Atlantic Prep Hockey League, remaining in the MSHL and playing most of its games against private school junior varsity teams.

The private schools that were a part of the MSHL until this year have banded together to form the MAPHL, which will hold its own seven-team state tournament next week. Three quarterfinal games will be played Feb. 19, with the top seed receiving a bye into the next day’s semifinals.

The field will include two teams each from the Interstate Athletic Conference, Maryland Independent Athletic Association and WCAC, plus one at-large team.

‘‘To be honest, I would think [the at-large team] would be somebody coming out of the IAC,” Landon coach Chandler Gammill said.

Gammill’s Bears (13-7) and IAC regular-season champion Bullis (10-0) should both make the state tournament field, though they still have to battle it out in this week’s IAC Tournament.

The semifinals will be played concurrently on adjacent ice sheets at Rockville Wednesday. Landon, seeded second, faces rival and No. 3 Georgetown Prep (12-7-2). Top-seeded Bullis will play the winner of a play-in game between St. Stephen’s-St. Agnes and St. Albans in the other semifinal. The IAC final and third-place game will be Thursday afternoon at Rockville.