CHL Playoffs Roll into Round Two
By Paul Krotz/CHL
Tyson Baillie scored all three goals for the Kelowna Rockets in a thrilling 3-2 Game 7 overtime victory to complete the dramatic comeback win over the Seattle Thunderbirds late Wednesday night to officially put an end to the first round of the CHL Playoffs
The second place Rockets and seventh place Thunderbirds were separated by 50 points in the WHL’s Western Conference regular season standings, yet five games of the series required extra time with a total of six one-goal games easily making this the toughest first round battle across the entire CHL.
“It’s unbelievable,” Baillie told the Kelowna Capital News after the game. “Being down 3-0 in the series, we came back and won three hard games. Of course, this one had to go to overtime. We had the character to pull it off.”
The Rockets became just the second team in WHL history to win a series after trailing 3-0 and advance to the second round where they will face the Kamloops Blazers.
1996 was the last time a WHL team came back from trailing 3-0 in a series when the Spokane Chiefs defeated the Portland Winterhawks. Coincidentally, the U.S Division rival Chiefs and Winterhawks are playoff opponents again this season to round out the Western Conference Semi-Final matchups.
In the WHL’s Eastern Conference, things went according to plan for all but the 2013 MasterCard Memorial Cup host Saskatoon Blades who fell in four straight games to the seventh place Medicine Hat Tigers.
The Tigers received timely goaltending from Cam Lanigan who allowed just four goals the entire series and posted a league-high save percentage of .976 in the first round.
“My goal coming in was to be better than (Blades goalie Andrey) Makarov,” Lanigan told the Medicine Hat News. “He is an elite goaltender in this league and playing on a world stage. He was one of the better goalies that we were going to face all year.”
The Tigers will continue to face tough goaltending as they prepare for the defending champion Edmonton Oil Kings who feature Laurent Brossoit between the pipes who also allowed just four goals in the first round against the Kootenay Ice spread out over five games.
The third place Calgary Hitmen will host the fourth place Red Deer Rebels in the other Eastern Conference Semi-Final.
Shifting east to the OHL, goaltending is also the focus as the top ranked London Knights get set to open their second round series against the Kitchener Rangers who feature World Junior MVP John Gibson between the pipes.
“We saw what he did at Christmas against the best players in the world,” Rangers Head Coach Steve Spott told the Kitchener Record. “When he came back from the world juniors, he was dealing with some pain. Now that he’s had that extended time off, he’s healthy and his mental mindset is real good. John is a very competitive person and I think he thrives under pressure.”
Seven of the top eight OHL teams advanced to the second round of the playoffs including the second place Plymouth Whalers and the third place Owen Sound Attack in the other Western Conference Semi-Final.
The Eastern Conference features the first place Belleville Bulls against the fifth place Sudbury Wolves who eliminated the Brampton Battalion in the OHL’s only first round upset.
The second place Barrie Colts faceoff against the third place Oshawa Generals in a series that started Wednesday night and required overtime before Zach Hall scored his second goal of the game to give the Colts a 1-0 series lead.
The QMJHL’s top ranked Halifax Mooseheads cruised to a 4-0 series win over the defending champion Saint John Sea Dogs and are set to battle the number 13 seed Gatineau Olympiques who pulled off a stunning six games series win over the Rimouski Oceanic who appeared in the BMO CHL Top-10 Rankings the last two months of the season.
“They’re a hard working team, they play hard, they play hard on both sides of the ice,” Mooseheads’ Head Coach Dominique Ducharme told Halifax Metro News. “They played with commitment that first round. They deserved to win.”
The Olympiques upset victory was not the only surprise in the QMJHL’s first round of playoffs according to the standings. The number 11 ranked Victoriaville Tigres defeated the number six Moncton Wildcats in a close five game series that had three games go to overtime including the final. The number 10 ranked Val-d’Or Foreurs lost twice in overtime to the number seven ranked PEI Rocket but emerged victorious in six games of the series fittingly clinching the final victory in triple overtime.
The Tigres will now face the second ranked Baie-Comeau Drakkar while the Foreurs will face the number three ranked Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. The fifth place Quebec Remparts will host the eighth place Rouyn-Noranda Huskies to round out the QMJHL Quarter-Final matchups which all get underway on Friday.