The Tri-City Americans and Kamloops Blazers already have secured playoffs spots. Now it's just a matter of where they will finish in the Western Conference standings.

The Blazers (37-12-1-3, 78 points), lead the Western Hockey League in points, two ahead of Tri-City (37-12-1-1) and the Edmonton Oil Kings (35-12-2-4), who beat the Kootenay Ice 3-1 on Tuesday.

But, the Americans, who lead the U.S. Divi-sion, have two games in hand on both teams.

Tri-City can pull even with Kamloops tonight when the two meet for the fourth and final time at Interior Savings Centre. The Blazers lead the series 2-0-1.

"The playoffs are all well and good, but we have loftier goals," Tri-City coach Jim Hiller said. "This is a big game. It's our last go with them and we want to leave an impression."

The Americans are coming off a pair of weekend wins over Seattle and Victoria, getting a solid performance from its top-ranked penalty kill and veteran players Adam Hughesman, Brendan Shinnimin and Justin Feser.

"With injuries, you need your big players to have big games, and you saw that Friday and Saturday," Hiller said.

Tri-City still is without captain Mason Wilgosh (lower body injury), Marcus Messier (upper body injury) and Malte Strmwall (lower body injury).

The Blazers, who are 12-2-1 in their last 15 games, are led by Brendon Ranford, who has 29 goals and seven goals in his last six games.

Kamloops also has a couple of their top players on the injured list -- defenseman Tyler Hansen and forward J.C. Lipon (concussion).

Hansen suffered an upper body injury Friday at Vancouver, but could play to night. Lipon suffered a concussion against Spokane on Feb. 1 and hasn't played since.