next .........................
3rd Liner
next .........................
4th Liner
So it looks like we will be playing Kelowna or Seattle, personally I hope its Kelowna cause Seattle gives us one heck of a time. Anyways who will you guys be playing? Is it Vancouver? That would/will be a heck of a series!
Super Moderator
Although its almost a fait accompli (done deal for the 'mericans in the audience), the Chiefs still have to win one more game and sometimes that game is the hardest one to win.
The Tips have never really been a playoff team and their dominance in the past during the regular season has never really translated to the second season. That said any team in this conference should win on a given night (except maybe Portland this year- the poor bastids), so don't count out the Tips just yet.
Should the Chiefs finish the sweep, or get through in 5, 6 or 7 games they will face the Vancouver Giants. Now as far as I know the second round is based on conference standings and regular season points, so the Giants would start on the road in Spoke should the Chiefs win the series.
Back-up Goalie
Originally Posted by Ams4life
Yes , If/when the Chiefs get past Everett , They will be facing Vancouver. The Chiefs would have Home ice advantage. If it happens it should be a barn burner of a series.GO CHIEFS!!!
3rd Liner
Wrong.Yes , If/when the Chiefs get past Everett , They will be facing Vancouver. The Chiefs would have Home ice advantage. If it happens it should be a barn burner of a series.
Unless they reformat after the first round, the Giants are the #2 seed and the Chiefs are the #3 seed, thus meaning Vancouver gets home ice, in spite of the fact that the Chiefs had more points, Vancouver won the BC division and gets the higher spot.
Back-up Goalie
Vancouver only gets the higher seed for the 1st round. Then the teams are ranked by points. Which would make the Chiefs the #2 seed for the rest of the playoffs. The only team that could have home ice over spokane after the 1st round is Tri . It was in a recent news letter sent out by the WHL to help clear up any confusion. So yes , They do reformat after round 1. Or at least thats what I have read anyway.
Assistant Coach
Yes this is correct. The division winners are seeded first and second for the first round only. Afterwards it is based on total points, so Spokane would have home ice advantage against the Giants. Though this begs the question, why even seed division winners this way if it only applies to one round?
Rookie
It has to do with rewarding the team who wins the division, creating motivation to do so. However, they also realize divisions aren't ever ideally matched up and they don't want to penalize the team who finished with more points, just like this very instance with the Chiefs and Vancouver. The odds are highly unlikely that a division winner will play a team (7th seed) that has more regular season points in the first round.
3rd Liner
Sorry if I created any confusion then...I read the WHL letter, but paid no mind to it at all. I just went with the old rules that I was more familiar with.
Thanks for clearing it up, guys.
Does anyone have a dustpan, by the way? :skeptical
Assistant Coach
Game 4 - Spokane 3, Everett 2 OT
Here’s my thoughts on tonight’s game:
I completely disagree with Becanic’s decision to play Barrie in this game. I don’t see it. Irving, while not on his best, did not play badly in this series. I really don’t understand this move at all. Irving is one of your leaders and you bench him in what could possibly be his last game as a Silvertip. That’s gotta leave a sour taste in Irving’s mouth. I would not be surprised at all if Becanic is not the head coach of the tips next season. The guy seems like a decent assistant, but I'm not convinced he's head coach material.
Blackwater’s goal was a huge defensive breakdown by the Tips. There was no reason for him to have as much time and space as he had. I’m not quite sure what happened there, but the Everett defenders gave Barrie no help on that play at all.
Defensively Glass and Falk were nearly perfect on the night. Both those guys had awesome games. To be fair to everyone, the entire D corps played very well, but those 2 guys in particular were outstanding.
The Chiefs controlled the 2nd period, but just couldn’t quite connect on anything. Despite what I said earlier about playing Irving, Barrie played very well tonight. How does Everett come up with all these awesome goaltenders? Even if Irving is not back next year, I don’t think Everett is going to be hurting all that much on the back end.
Midway through the 3rd period was the first time in the series where it looked like Everett truly wanted to play hockey. The started really pressuring the Chiefs, had a very good forecheck and were pretty relentless in their effort to tie up the game. If Everett had played like this every game, there series outcome could have been very different. They definitely would not have swept Everett, who has a ton of talent.
The high sticking penalty on Bowman and the boarding call on Koper were travesties. I cannot describe it any better than that. Bowman’s call came when he followed through on shooting the puck down the ice and he happened to clip an Everett player (I think it was Hamill but I can’t remember for sure) in the face. His stick was not out of control and despite any damage he does to another player’s face, by rule this is NOT a penalty. I can’t imagine that all 4 referees missed the fact that Bowman was shooting on the play leading me to believe that these refs don’t even know the entire rulebook. The Koper boarding call was just plain sad. Nothing dirty about it, I don’t really know what else to say. Write down some reasons that refs are supposed to call boarding, put them all in a hat, shake it up and pull one out and you have your “reason” that penalty was called. Don’t get me wrong, a couple of the calls on Everett were iffy as well, but these 2 were the worst calls of the night.
After the Chiefs killed the 5-3, the tide seemed to turn. At one point during the OT, Everett was out shooting Spokane 6-0 (I’m not 100% sure on this but Everett had at least the first 5 shots of the period) and the totals for OT ended 7-4 according to the score sheet, so Spokane had the majority of the scoring chances during the second half of the 12 overtime minutes that were played. Spurgeon (I'm almost 100% certain it was Bowman who made the pass, but everything I've read says Spurgeon even though I know Glass and Falk were on the ice at the time...) made a perfect pass to Wahl to end it, all he had to do was guide the puck in a wide open net and that was the series.
Overall it was a fun trip up to Everett. The arena is pretty nice (although the concourse could be a tad larger) but it was a pleasant experience. I didn’t have any problems with the fans, you heard an occasional “Spokane sucks” etc, but that’s to be expected and not hard to deal with. Overall the fans were courteous and respectful. The only complaint I have about the arena is that damn horn. They blow that thing all the time. It’s called a GOAL horn, blow it 2x max after a goal and it’s good. Nothing major, but I found that pretty annoying. I always have to complain about something every time I visit an arena for the first time.
But anyway after all that I’m glad the Chiefs came out on top; it was an exciting game that could have gone either way, but it’s been 5 years since I’ve been able to see my team win a playoff round so I’m very happy about that. It doesn’t get any easier playing the defending Memorial Cup champs but I am definitely looking forward to it. And to the Everett fans, I must say that was a pretty impressive display of gratitude to your team at the end of the game. It was very loud there at the end and that was cool to see. I know it is disappointing when your team loses, so way to support your team and good luck next season!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote