NEAL’S NOTES: TWO HOT TEAMS MEET IN VICTORIA
It’s bitter-sweet that Friday night is our last WHL on Shaw broadcast of the regular season. Exciting that the playoffs are right around the corner, but at the same time a little disappointing that the regular season is already about to end. The trade deadline feels like it was two weeks ago, not two months. But, the show goes on and a terrific tilt, if not a first-round playoff preview, rounds out the 32-game Shaw schedule with the Everett Silvertips in Victoria to face the Royals.
The Royals had their six-game win streak halted by a 3-2 loss in Vancouver Wednesday, but the team is still 18-2-1-1 in their past 22 games. The Royals still have a shot at 50 wins on the year with a record of 48-18-1-3 going into the weekend. A month ago, two wins against the Silvertips seemed like a good possibility. But the Silvertips have points in 10 straight games with wins in nine of those contests, including the last seven. Right now, if the playoffs were to start today, the Royals would face the Silvertips in the opening round of the playoffs, but Everett could still reach the fourth seed in the West as they trail Seattle by just three points. The Silvertips go into the clash with a 37-23-7-2 record and are only one behind Spokane for fifth.
This home-and-home will close out the regular season for the Royals and they will look to duplicate the home-and-home set they had with the Silvertips to ring in 2014. The Royals won both battles by scores of 3-2 in Victoria New Year’s Eve, followed by a 1-0 shoot-out win in Everett the following night. Those low scoring games should be the expectation for this home-and-home series, again. While the Royals sit second to Edmonton for goals allowed this season with 173, the Silvertips have been just as tough to score against over their 10-game point streak, with no more than two goals allowed in any of those games.
While most teams in the WHL go into the weekend with two games left, the Silvertips are one of four teams with three games this weekend, as they will finish the season in Portland Sunday. Everett is fresh off a 4-2 win in Spokane, their first win on Chiefs’ ice in 19 trips to Spokane for Everett. Josh Winquist scored the game-winner, his 45th goal of the season. Winquist is tied with Portland’s Oliver Bjorkstrand for third in goals and is 10th in league scoring with 89 points. The game will also mark another return to Victoria for former Royals’ forward Zane Jones, who was acquired just ahead of the trade deadline by Everett from Calgary.
The Royals put a four-game win streak on the line in head-to-head play with the Silvertips.
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While the Royals are locked into the third spot in the West, they may be keeping an eye on top spot in the Eastern Conference. With their 3-1 win over Medicine Hat Wednesday, the Edmonton Oil Kings put themselves firmly into the driver’s seat to win the East. That was their game in hand on the Hitmen and now the Oil Kings go into their season-ending home-and-home with Red Deer two points up on Calgary for the conference lead. With three more wins than the Hitmen, the Oil Kings have the tie-breaker on their side should the teams finish even in points at the end of the campaign. It would be the Oil Kings third straight Eastern Conference regular season title should they hang on when the dust settles from the weekend.
How this ties to Victoria? Well, the Oil Kings now have 101 points, one more than the Royals and if the Royals advance to the WHL final, then home-ice advantage is in the balance this weekend.
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While the Royals would prefer a Red Deer sweep against the Oil Kings, the Prince Albert Raiders will be cheering louder than anyone at Rexall Place for the Oil Kings to hold their form against the Rebels. The Raiders suffered two huge losses in Southern Saskatchewan this week; 6-3 in Moose Jaw Tuesday then 7-1 at Regina Wednesday. The Warriors won six of eight meetings with the Raiders this season and it would be real hard for the green and gold to not look at that stat as a big reason why they could miss the playoffs. But the good news for the Raiders is the fact they are 5-1-0-0 against the Saskatoon Blades, who they will finish the season against in a home-and-home set. Let’s not forget that the Brandon Wheat Kings aren’t out of the woods yet, either. A big 8-5 win over Saskatoon Tuesday put the Wheat Kings back into the playoff picture in the East, but less than two months ago, the Wheat Kings led the East division. Now they face the Regina Pats, who hope to claim their first East division title since 2008. The Pats lead the Swift Current Broncos by three points with a pair of games to play. The Pats need just a point to clinch since they will finish with more wins than the Broncos.
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With 61 goals and 116 points, Mitch Holmberg is on his way to the WHL scoring title with a seven point lead on Portland’ Nic Petan, last season’s co-winner of the Bobby Clarke Trophy. The two had been neck-and-neck for much of the second half of the season until their final nine games. Holmberg has three hat-tricks and 10 goals and 16 points over that time, Petan has two goals and seven points in his last nine games, which is hard to believe since he was rolling along on a 16-game point streak.
Holmberg’s stats have climbed from 33 as a rookie in 2010-11, to 55, 80 and now 116. It’s been steady, significant improvement for Holmberg each year and you would think a contract is likely to come his way soon. Kind of like Tyler Johnson, an old teammate of Holmberg’s. Johnson, with 21 goals this season for the Tampa Bay Lightning, had 53 goals and 115 points in his overage year with Spokane in 2010-11 and signed a free agent deal with the Lightning.
