Tonight's Tips-Chiefs game may be playoff preview

By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer

EVERETT -- The Everett Silvertips and Spokane Chiefs have gotten to know one another well over the past few weeks.

And they'd be best served to remember what they've learned. There's a good chance that when the postseason rolls around, these two teams will be seeing a lot more of one another.

The Tips and Chiefs finish off their season series -- as well as their extensive getting-to-know-you phase -- when the teams meet tonight in Everett and Friday in Spokane.

And it may very well be a sneak peek at the first round of the playoffs.

"Playing them this many times in a short period of time kind of makes it like a preview for the playoffs," Everett goaltender Leland Irving said. "We've just got to take it one game at a time. It's going to be a war all the way through and we've got to be at the top of our game to compete with a team like that."

Everett and Spokane play eight times this season. By the time the season series ends Friday, Everett and Spokane will have played six of those eight games during the past five weeks, meaning the teams will be all too familiar with one another.

"I think it helps us, and I'm sure it helps (Chiefs coach Bill) Peters," Everett coach John Becanic said. "You're preparing for the same thing every other game it seems, and if the playoffs started today it's who we'd play. So I think both teams are trying to figure out how to beat each other."

Indeed, with just four weeks remaining in the regular season the possibility of a first-round playoff matchup between Everett and Spokane looms. If the season ended today, Spokane would finish as the Western Conference's third seed and Everett would finish as the sixth seed, thus mandating a first-round series between the two teams.

And there's a good chance both teams will still find themselves in those positions come March 16, the final day of the regular season.

Going into Tuesday night's action Everett was 13 points ahead of seventh-place Chilliwack, meaning it's unlikely the Tips will finish any worse than sixth. Everett was within striking distance of fourth-place Kelowna (four points ahead) and fifth-place Seattle (one point ahead). However, both the Rockets and T-birds have played fewer games than the Tips, and Seattle has a vastly easier schedule down the stretch with six games combined against cellar dwellers Portland and Prince George.

Meanwhile, for Spokane to avoid third the Chiefs would have to overtake the U.S. Division-leading Tri-City Americans. Going into Tuesday night's action Spokane trailed Tri-City by six points with two games in hand.

But while the possibility exists for an Everett-Spokane first-round series, the Tips haven't pencilled in the Chiefs as their first-round opponent just yet.

"You don't pick and choose your opponents," Becanic said. "There's 11 games to go and we can finish as high as fourth or as low as sixth -- barring a catastrophe. We certainly aren't preparing like (the Chiefs) are our playoff opponents, but in the back of your head you think about how we could potentially play them."

Not that the Tips would mind facing Spokane in the first round, at least based on results so far this season. Everett is 4-2 against the Chiefs, despite Spokane's superior overall record.

But the wins and losses don't tell the whole story, either. Spokane outshot Everett in each of the first six meetings. That includes games in which the Chiefs outshot the Tips 40-22 and 55-30. Everett happened to win both those games, in large part because of Irving.

"They definitely give me my fair share of work, that's for sure," Irving said.

Said Becanic: "They're a good team, and good teams make you sometimes not look so good. If you look back at the early years when we played Kelowna, even when we beat them they were a team that made you not look very good because they were so talented, and I think Spokane is a very talented team."

A talented team the Tips may have to get used to.