In an intense and physical game from the opening face off, Lake charles battled past the Moccasins 4-3 in a showdown of teams competing for second place in the Western Professional Hockey Leagu's Eastern Division.

The Moccasins got a hat trick from Lukas Smital, but it was not quite enough to overcome an early 3-0 Lake charles lead in a game that featured a host of hard hits.

"That was a good hockey game," Lake charles coach Bob Loucks said.

Despite the loss, Monroe coach Brian Curran was pleased with the intensity and effort from the Mocs, who outshot Lake Charles 39-20.

"I think we played a very good hockey game," Curran said. "I think their goaltender just beat our goaltender.

"If we continue to play like that, we will be a very tough team to beat."

The win gives the Ice Pirates (40-24-4, 84 points) the inside track to second place in the division and the No. 3 seed in the Eastern bracket of the playoffs, which begin Tuesday.

Since Lake Charles holds the tiebreaker advantage, Monroe (38-24-6, 82 points) would have to win its last two final regular-season games -- today at home against Arkansas ans Sunday at Tupelo -- while Lake Charles would have to lose its final two for the Mocs to finish second in the division.

Lake Charles jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, then held on as Monroe went toe-to-toe with the Ice Pirates and stayd on the attack against goalie Bryan Schoen.

Tossing team loyalties and the final score aside, the 2,438 fans in attendance at the Monroe Civic Center were the real winners, witnessing nonstop, rugged play with no letting up on either side.

"It was really physical," Monroe forward Kelvin Solari said. "That was playoff-style hockey."

Even when the Mocs were on the short side of a 3-0 score, they did not back down. They pounded away on the Ice Pirates and made them work to get off a shot, which did not happen often. Had it not been for Schoen, whose stops included a couple of breakaway saves, this game could have gone the other way.

"We really stayed after them in the second and third," Solari said. "A couple of breaks and that's our game."

Monroe pulled within 4-3 at the 12:25 mark of the third period on Smital's third goal, but could not catch Lake Charles despite several good chances. Schoen stopped 15 of 16 shots in an aggressive third period by Monroe.

Jeff Andrews put Lake Charles ahead 1-0 at 12:19 of the first period when he took a rebound of a shot by Clint Wensley and slapped it past Monroe goalie Clint Owen.

The Ice Pirates put the Mocs in a hole with two goals just 36 seconds apart later in the period. Justin Van Parys scored at 16:42 and Bill Lund sliced through the Monroe defense for a successful wrist shot past Owen, who was pulled after the first period.

"We had two breakaways ourselves in the first period and Schoen made the saves," Curran said. "Unfortunately for Clint, he didn't get the big saves when we did break down."

Monroe finally answered with 1:10 remaining in the first when Smital beat Schoen on the first of Smital's three goals. Kelvin Solari assisted on the play.

"I thought we were playing real well and then we let down at the end of the first period and let them back in it," Loucks said.

Monroe cut the deficit to 3-2 at 7:48 of the second period on a power play. After Lake Charles' Scott Orzoff was called for holding, Smital scored his second goal of the game, assisted by Bill McKay and Duncan Dalmao.

Lake Charles pushed the lead back to two at 12:10 of the second period with a goal from David Barozzino.

Monroe will try to carry over Friday's effort into today's final regular-season home game at 7 p.m. against Arkansas.