All season long, Wareham has split the starting netminder duties for the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League Club right down the middle between Hunter Arps and Colby Entz.

Now, with the SMAAAHL playoffs starting on Friday, Wareham will have to decide who lead the team into battle on Friday night at Mosaic Place as the second seeded Generals (27-11-6) begin their best-of-five quarter-final series against the seventh seeded Beardy's Blackhawks.

"Either guy is capable of getting things done for us and we haven't come to a decision yet," Wareham said.

"Our plan is to talk to both of them after practice on Wednesday and see how much time each of them need to get ready. We're comfortable with either guy and we believe that we can win the series with either one of them in goal."

One might expect that the battle between the pipes would lead to a bitter rivalry between the Arps and Entz, but that's not the case.

"We push each other to the limit all of the time and that is really making us better as goalies," Arps said. "We're best friends so that helps us out a lot as we both want each other to do well."

"We don't want to get scored on in each end during practice," Entz joked. "It's all good though and our main focus is to help the team do the best that it can."

Wareham believes this year is the first time that he's gone with an split between his two goaltenders since becoming the head coach for the Generals.

"With Colby being a three year guy I'm sure he would like to play more but Hunter did a great job last year coming in as a rookie and earning his stripes," Wareham said.

"I thought that in fairness to both of them I would rotate things this year and their best of friends off of the ice so it hasn't been a distraction at all in the dressing room. They've both played well and they have a chance to go on to have some great junior careers."

Arps was stellar in his sophomore campaign. The 5th round pick by the Brandon Wheat Kings in the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft had a 16-3-2 record with a 1.74 goals against average and a league best .943 save percentage.

"I felt like I had a better idea of what to expect this year compared to when I came in as a rookie last season," Arps said. "That helped me out a lot.

"It was quicker than what I was used to when I was playing in bantam so it took me a little bit to get used to that but that speed's become a lot easier to adjust to over time."

Entz, who will move on from the midget ranks after this year, had a 11-11-1 record with a 2.69 goals against average and a .923 save percentage in his final season with the Generals.

"Being a veteran guy and being on the team that hosted the Telus Cup (in 2014) I know firsthand all of the work you put in to compete at that level and I've tried to use some of things that I learned from that season here with these guys," Entz said.

"On a personal level, I'm really happy with the improvements I've made in my foot speed since I started here. I've always had it, but I really didn't know how to use it and I've become more comfortable with it over time."

Both goalies are anxious to take on the Blackhawks in the best-of-five affair. The Generals won the season series 3-1 but lost the last game of the regular season to the Blackhawks by a score of 5-1 on Sunday.

"They shoot from everywhere," Entz said. "You have to be ready for that at all times and we saw that on the weekend."

"We're all excited for it and hopefully will have a good start at home on Friday," Arps added. "It's the playoffs and everyone will be stepping up their game."