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Kootenay Ice and the Spokane Chiefs will play for the WHL Championship in what should be a final of two teams that play completely opposite styles of hockey. While Spokane is a fast skating hockey team that would like to run and gun, the Ice have a solid defensive core that can bang and crash with the best of them while keeping the puck out of the net and on offence they can put the puck in the net with the best of them. Spokane has had an easier time of the playoff grind having enjoyed a second round bye in the west playoffs, which has allowed them to stay fresh, but as crunch time approaches, will it affect the most important position in playoff hockey....goaltending? Is nine games of hockey in over a month since the playoffs began enough to have kept the likes of Labarbera and MacKay game sharp? The Cougars have some goal scoring ability but didn't test the Chiefs gaoltending the way Svoboda, Blatny, Green and Stoll will.

Edge goes to the Ice in my opinion, based on the reasons given above. I just don't believe the Chiefs goaltenders will be as sharp as Blackburn, having faced little game rubber in the past month. If age was going to be a factor for Blackburn, it would likley have shown up before this series and the sixteen year old appears solid, whereas highly touted, but unproven Jason Labarbera can shine, but has already shown in the playoffs he can struggle mightily as well. The ice also have a more robust defence overall and play much more physical in front of their goaltender making it easier too see the shots and making it tougher for the smaller Spokane forwards to get to the net. Solid and steady Blackburn against two older yet unproven playoff goalies in Spokane, edge to Kootenay unless Blackburn goes down with an injury.

Edge again goes to the Ice as far as I'm concerned, with Spokane having a solid top three of Rossiter, Sauer and Roles, but the Ice have a solid back end of Lassu, Walker, Arsene, Fischer and Johnson who can all play a lot of minutes. The Chiefs have to insert mostly young and unproven rookies to relieve the top three and against a wave of Ice forwards, Babcock is going to have to use his fourth through sixth defenceman or wear his top three out early in a series. I think the Ice will take it in six games or less. If Babcock is forced to use his rookies too much the edge swings all in the Ice's favour and heaven forbid the Chiefs to have any injury trouble behind the blueline with any of the top three or this series could be really short. All in all, I feel the Ice have a tougher and deeper back end which should be a big factor in the Ice coming out on top, however Kootenay will need to focus early on Roles and take him out of the series as he is the guy who gets it started for the Chiefs.

Trying to find a strength on the Chiefs side, however it appears the Ice have the edge here as well. Blatny, Green and Svobobda are a talented group that gets a ton of ice time and will run whatever defensive pairing Babcock chooses to use ragged, while Stoll, Jaffray, Sinclair, Tutschek and Beechey should be able to put pressure on a less experienced pairing. Though Smith, Schutz, Bohac, Tverdon and McDonald are aggressive and quick, only Bohac and Tverdon really remind me of natiral goalscorers who can burn you on any given shift. Smith, a very good playmaker who can agitate with the best of them, will need to overcome a defence that combined is as mobile and physical as the Chiefs will have seen. Outside of Schutz the Chiefs don't have a lot of size up front that gets a regular shift, meaning Shawn Thompson will need to bang, crash and create room for his skilled teammates like he never has before, to give the Chiefs more a physical presence up front that will help them create scoring chances. Once again the edge appears to be in the Ice corner as they will be the first team the Chiefs play that can roll four lines capable of being competitve each and every shift, whereas the Chiefs depth falls of sharply after the top two.

McGill has done a great job with a talented, hardworking hockey club, but nothing compares to the job Mike Babcock has done with the surprising Chiefs team. Bab's has this club working their tails off every night and believing in themselves, which counts for a lot come playoff time. Pre-season prognosticators had the Chiefs at third or fourth in the west and Babcock has had this team playing great hockey from the start of the season and lead gate to wire, which I believe is something that shouldn't be underestimated as a factor in this series. Will Babcock's past experiences and ability be enough to propel the Chiefs past the Ice, I doubt it, but I do think a big edge goes to the Chiefs benchboss. Unfortunately, he can't dress in the games.

The small, raucous barn in Kootenay will be a very intimidating place to play in and since the first two games are played in Cranbrook, it should aid the Ice in getting a quick start. But should the Chiefs get a split or win the first two, Spokane fans are notorious for making it very difficult to enjoy playing in thier barn and the series could turn into a long one. Edge Ice because of the home ice advantage they have in their small rink.

Any injuries to Spokane's top three defencemen or top five forwards and the depth chart begins to get thin in a hurry for Spokane. Though Lucky and Keith look to have bright futures in the WHL, I'm not sure they're ready to jump into this series and play vital roles, whereas Kootenay has more depth both up front and on the back end, even if Boxma were to have to enter the fray. Edge Ice.

The Prince George Cougars have had it pretty easy so far. They disposed of The Kelowna Rockets in five and had a couple of days to heal before taking on a Seattle team that had disposed of the Kamloops Blazers in four. They romped through the T-Birds in three straight and now await the start of the division final with the Spokane Chiefs. It is only befitting that the two top teams in the west meet in the final. PG was giving the Chiefs a run for first place in the west by season’s end but ran out of time and games. The Spokane Chiefs were an impressive team all year, improving better than 50 points over last season. This matchup has the makings of a good one. PG didn’t have to resort to much of a physical game with the T-Birds and the series with Spokane will probably be much the same. The big difference will be that Spokane will give the Cougars a much tougher time than the T-Birds did. Both teams are capable of playing whatever style of hockey it takes to win. Both teams will probably be a little tentative in the first game, but as the series progresses look for a more wide open game with goaltending and specialty teams to play a big role. PG has Myers and Spokane has Labarbera, both top notch goalies in this league. The Chiefs are going to have to look for some tough physical "D" from the likes of Kyle Rossiter, David Boychuk and Scott Roles to stop the likes of Blair Betts and Tyler Bouck and veteran Jon Barkman, who is probably playing the best hockey of his career right now. On the other side of the ledger, the Cougars are going to have to look to Tim Wedderburn, Shon Jones-Parry and Christian Chartier to pick up where they left off in the Seattle series to stop the likes of Schutz, Bohac, and Krymusa. I don’t see this being a rough, tough, rock ‘em sock ‘em style series, but both teams are capable of it and if a game or two get out of hand, you never know what may transpire. I’m sticking to my guns on this one. I said all season long that the Cougars would come out of the west and even with Ed Dempsey continuing to roll only two lines most nights, which he has a tendency to do, I still believe they will.

Cougars in 6.
 
 

 The Seattle Thunderbirds advanced to the second round after disposing of a much smaller and very untough Kamloops Blazer team in four straight. The T-Birds pretty much had their way with the Blazers, pounding the Blazers into submission. Other than a scrap between Brett Draney and Jason McKee and one between Blazer captain, Micki Dupont and T-Birds Euro, Oleg Saprykin it was a pretty quiet affair. Kamloops gave it all they had, but were no match for the physical play of the T-Birds.

The T-Birds now move on to a much tougher team in the Prince George Cougars. The Cougars are a better match for the surging T-Birds and should give them all they can handle and more. If the T-Birds choose to play the tough, physical game that they played with Kamloops, they’ll have to contend with the likes of Ryan Chieduch, Travis Eagles, Justin Yeoman, and even Tyler Bouck. If Shon Jones-Parry plays his normal obnoxious, beligerent game for P.G. and gets under a few T-Birds skins, then we may see a few fireworks. On the other side, Nathan Forster can do his share of agitating and he too may set fire to  some short fuses.

Although the playoffs don’t seem to generate the same level of pugilism as the regular season, this series has the potential to see a couple of good scraps. I can’t see this series going too far before Darren McLachlan has a go with either Ryan Chieduch or Travis Eagles. Remember folks, it’s best of FIVE. Look for this one to go the distance.

P.G. in five.
 

KAMLOOPS BLAZERS:

The Blazers season is over. Bowing out to Seattle in four, the Blazers surely will come out next season with a little tougher squad. I think they proved this year that you can’t go the distance with only one enforcer. Jason Bone came in and did an admirable job for the Blazers, but he just wasn’t a match for some of the real heavyweights. He held his own in most fights, didn’t win a lot and kudos to the kid, he never turned down a fight from anyone. The problem for the Blazers was....He was the ONLY enforcer. Aaron Gionet will have to pick up some of the slack next year and hopefully for the Blazers, Curtis Tidball and youngster Tyler Boldt will step in and toughen up a basically untough Blazer squad.
 
 

KELOWNA ROCKETS:

TRI-CITY AMERICANS:

 The Americans are a tough team to figure out. Bowing out to Spokane in Four straight and looking all season like a team with no direction, where do they go from here. Jeff Feniak, who they acquired along with Eric Clarke in a trade for tough guy, Stephen Peat, will have to pick up his physical play a ton next season if he is going to lead the Ams defence. They had enough toughness this year to grind it out with the best, but just didn’t seem to have the heart or desire to do for veteran coach and GM, Don Hay. For all Don Hay’s trades over the last two seasons, the Ams don’t look like they have a direction. Who knows maybe we’ll see some wholesale trades before next September.
 
 

PORTLAND WINTERHAWKS:

For Winterhawk fans this season was a write off. The departure of Marty "the Rose Garden Gnome" Standish, Brendan Morrow, Andrew Ferrence, Kevin Haupt and others dropped the Hawks from first to worst in just two seasons. Out of the playoffs, the young Winterhawks went through the first phase of "The Rebuild". The acqusition of overage Kent Sauer was probably one of the best moves they could have made. A rock solid, stay at home, tough guy, helped bolster a young inexperienced defence. Michael Kiesman will be gone next year along with Sauer, but their experience has hopefully been passed on to the likes of James DeMone, Chad Grisdale and Jonathan Lupul. Eric Bowen seems to adapting well to a couple of blades as opposed to eight wheels and has definitley made his prescence felt. He hasn’t backed down from anybody and looks to be setting himself up to be a force to be reckoned with next year. The late surgance of big guy, James Demone and the physical play, all season long of eighteen year old Chad Grisdale coupled with the fiesty and fearless Eric Bowen should make the Winterhawks a force to be reckoned with for the next few seasons.
 
 

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