The Brockville Tikis came out of the game feeling a lot more positive with their game than the Gananoque Islanders.

The Tikis continued their preparation for the upcoming playoffs by trimming the lethargic Islanders 4-1 in Rideau- St. Lawrence Junior B Hockey League action at the Memorial Centre on Wednesday night.

While neither team was going to improve their status in the standings, the game was just a late-season scrimmage to work on details for the post-season.

The Tikis accomplished something besides the two points for the win. The Islanders still have a lot to work on if they're going to be any kind of threat to last more than five games in the first round of the playoffs.

"We played alright. The game was tough to play but we did some good things," said Tikis head coach Adam Folco, who was named a first team all-star coach in the Rideau Division. "We just have to stay positive and go forward."

The Tikis won their eighth game in their last 11 with the hustle and energy they're going to need in the playoffs.

The Islanders lost their sixth game in the last 11 and didn't show much jump in their step.

"We were shorthanded but you can't use that as an excuse. The life wasn't there. The energy wasn't there," said Gan head coach Robb Bowman. "You have to take whatever it brings you on any given night. You still have to want to compete."

The Tikis led 2-1 after a first period in which they outshot the Islanders 14-5.

James Hurley showed some patience with Gan goalie Chris Feniak lying on the ice to score the first Brockville goal.

Jordan Moran then fed a nice pass to an uncovered Shane Melcher for a Brockville powerplay goal.

Dan Bennett scored for Gan on a shot from behind the goal line, with the puck squeezing through the pads of Brockville goaltender Ethan Wright.

At 2:59 of the second period, a lacklustre Gan forecheck allowed Brockville to break out of its zone.

Eric Malloy ended up scoring from a scramble in front of Feniak when the play went into the Gananoque zone.

In the third period, the Islanders thought they had scored a goal at the 9:46 mark.

However, referee Shawn Martel whistled the Islanders for interference instead.

The Gan bench showed plenty of emotion on that call but didn't respond at all when Feniak stopped two breakaways.

"We're just playing lazy and not being first to the puck," said Bowman, who still believes the Islanders can make some noise in the playoffs. "We don't want to be down 2-0 in the (playoff) series before we decide we want to play hockey."

Tikis' Melcher was robbed by Feniak with eight minutes left, right before Wright made a good stop on Gan's Josh Rusk in close.

Doug Utting finished off the scoring for the Tikis by tucking the puck past Feniak in sweeping around from behind the net.

In a good news-bad news scenario, the Tikis killed off a full, two-man advantage by the Islanders late in the period.

It was good hustle and work by Robert Rice that helped kill off the penalty. His play drew applause from the fans. It was bad that they even had to play two men short in the first place.

"I'm not happy with the penalties, but special teams are pretty important in the playoffs," said Folco.

The Islanders have four games remaining in the season while the Tikis only have three left.

Bowman would like Gan to build some momentum and get a win or two before facing either the Westport Rideaus or Athens Aeros.

The Tikis would just like to keep on winning.

"It would be nice to win all our remaining games. Winning breeds winning," said Folco. "It would be nice to keep this going."

The Tikis outshot the Islanders 34-24.

On Friday night, a key game in the season is going to see Athens in Westport at 8 p.m.

The Islanders are hosting the Casselman Vikings that night while the Tikis will be going to Prescott to play the South Grenville Rangers on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.