As we head into the home stretch of the SMJHL regular season, it's time to determine whether the Montreal Militia have what it takes to contend for the Four-Star Cup based off their advanced team stats.

Goals, they are the ultimate decider of who wins and who loses, and Montreal is doing fairly well at scoring them and really well at preventing them. The Militia score a league-average 3.06 goals per game, while they only allow 2.94 goals per game, which is above the league average. When you divide the numbers of goals scored per game by the number of goals allowed, Montreal has a success rate of 103.88%, good for third in the league. This bodes well for the heavily inexperienced side, as these stats show they should make it past the first round no matter the opponent.

Meanwhile, shot generation continues to be a major struggle for the Militia. Each game, Montreal generates just 24.89 shots which is one whole shot below league average. At the same time, they are allowing a whopping 28.29 shots per game to be taken on their own net, which lands them as the second-worst shooting shutdown team in the league. This is not a recipe for success, it means one of two things in the big picture. Either one, they have gotten extreme puck luck so far in the regular season, which should come back down to earth when the short playoff series' arrive. Or two, that their goaltenders have been standing on their head in order to achieve so many wins, which should also come crashing down to earth once the playoff atmosphere is in full motion.

In the end, Montreal will secure themselves a good seeding heading into the playoff rounds, which will be beneficial as they will not have to play Detroit or Kelowna until at least the third round, but if they want to contend for the cup, things will need to be shaken up especially on the blueline.