With the cherry blossoms comes junior-hockey playoffs. The surprise Western Hockey League regular-season champion Victoria Royals (50-16-6) unveiled their post-season T-shirts Wednesday. It is a logo of the Ed Chynoweth Cup WHL playoff championship trophy over the caption: 鈥淔ight For Your Right.鈥�
That fight begins Friday and Saturday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre with the opening two games of the first-round playoff series against the Western Conference eighth-seed Spokane Chiefs (33-30-9).
The third and fourth games are Tuesday and Wednesday in Spokane. If required, Game 5 will be Friday, April 1, in Victoria, Game 6 Sunday, April 3, in Spokane, and Game 7 Tuesday, April 5, in Victoria.
Here is a series breakdown:
听
OFFENCE
Victoria scored a Western Conference-leading and league third-best 281 goals, 58 more than Spokane. The Royals鈥� scoring is so evenly distributed that it keeps the opposition off balance by providing no easy targets to focus on. You have to worry about all the Victoria forwards. Alex Forsberg led the Royals and was league top-10 with 91 points. Tyler Soy set a Royals team standard with 46 goals and had 85 points. The underrated but reliable veteran Jack Walker had 36 goals and 84 points. Matthew Phillips led all WHL rookies with 37 goals and 76 points. Russian-import Vladimir Bobylev had 67 points and breakout sophomore Dante Hannoun had 58.
For the Chiefs, the Spokane-raised Yamamoto siblings can deke and dart and cause mayhem in the offensive zone with their speed. Kailer had 71 points and brother Keanu 54 points.
Advantage: Victoria.
听
DEFENCE
The Royals were downright stingy, allowing a league-fewest 166 goals against. No team was within 20 goals of that, least of all Spokane, which allowed 79 more goals than Victoria.
The Royals鈥� blue line is led by captain and Detroit Red Wings prospect Joe Hicketts, a two-way dynamo with 61 points. He plays much bigger than his five-foot-eight frame. Veteran backup is provided by Los Angeles Kings draft pick Chaz Reddekopp and the underrated Ryan Gagnon, while younger blue-liners such as Ralph Jarratt and Scott Walford have steadily progressed.
The Spokane defence is anchored by the undrafted but solid over-ager Jason Fram, a second-team Western Conference all-star in his fifth season with the Chiefs. Fram had 46 points in just 55 games this season and can head up ice as well as he defends.
Advantage: Victoria.
听
GOALTENDING
It鈥檚 like a May-December buddy movie plotline in the Victoria crease. The Royals鈥� pairing of rookie Griffen Outhouse, who led the WHL with a 1.82 goals-against average in 27 appearances, and over-ager Colemann Vollrath, who was third in the league with a 2.40 GAA in 51 games, is a 1-2 crease combo that will be difficult to solve for any opponent.
Tyson Verhelst, ranked 20th overall in the WHL, carried the load for Spokane this season with a 3.16 GAA in 51 games.
Advantage: Victoria.
听
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Royals鈥� power-play connected at a league sixth-best 22.8 per cent efficiency and the Chiefs鈥� at a 20th-ranked 17.8 per cent. Victoria killed penalties at a league second-best rate of 84.2 per cent. Spokane was ranked 13th at 78.4 per cent.
Advantage: Victoria.
听
COACHING
Spokane鈥檚 Don Nachbaur is a consummate professional and his Chiefs will be ready. But there is a reason Dave Lowry was named Western Conference coach of the year and is nominated the same for the entire league. Lowry took an unheralded young group, picked by many in the pre-season for a lower-middle-of-the-pack finish, to the best regular-season record in the league.
Advantage: Victoria.
听
INTANGIBLES
The Royals and Chiefs split the season series 2-2, but that is a largely irrelevant statistic because they have not played each other since Oct. 24. Meanwhile, Victoria won 13 consecutive games to close out the regular season while Spokane went 4-6 in its last 10. You can see where this is trending all the way up Blanshard.
Advantage: Victoria.
Series Prediction: Victoria in four.
听
THE REST OF THE WEST
A look at the other WHL Western Conference opening series:
听
Kelowna Rockets (48-20-4) versus Kamloops Blazers (38-25-9): The fading Rockets have lost their best forward, Nick Merkley, and top goaltender Jackson Whistle. Those are huge holes. The Blazers are on the rise, enter the playoffs on a nine-game winning streak, and have better goaltending with Western Conference second-team all-star Connor Ingram.
Prediction: Kamloops in six.
听
Seattle Thunderbirds (45-23-4) versus Prince George Cougars (36-31-5): The Thunderbirds are the U.S. Division champions, enter the playoffs on a 13-game winning streak, and have Western Conference first-team all-stars Mathew Barza (an NHL first-round draft pick of the New York Islanders up front) and Ethan Bear on defence. The Cougars, a trendy early-season pick, have not lived up to expectations.
Prediction: Seattle in five.
听
Everett Silvertips (38-26-8) versus Portland Winterhawks (34-31-7): You know what they say about the importance of goaltending in the playoffs. The Silvertips have the whippet-quick Carter Hart, the WHL Western Conference goaltender of the year and the top-rated North American goalie for the 2016 NHL draft. The Winterhawks still have some hold-over talent, but their glory years appear to be receding in the rear-view mirror.
Prediction: Everett in six.
听
EASTERN CONFERENCE
The prediction is that the Brandon Wheat Kings (48-18-6), the East regular-season champions, will win and present a clear challenge to whichever team survives to represent the Western Conference in the WHL final.
