Your 2015 WHL playoff preview

By Tim Pigulski and Andy Eide

The WHL’s second season is finally upon us. After 72 grueling games, long bus rides and the highs and lows that come with a regular season, it all comes down to 16 teams.

Seattle is one of those 16 teams and it will begin its playoff march Saturday night in Portland. But what about the rest of the league? Who’s the team to beat? Where are the potential upsets? Who are the key players going to be?

We have all those answers and more for you in our annual playoff preview.

Western Conference team to beat

The Kelowna Rockets enter the postseason as the clear team to beat in the Western Conference. They were the favorites before the season and backed up those predictions by finishing first in the West by a 17-point margin.

Many expect the Rockets to be the WHL’s representative in the Memorial Cup and it’s going to be an incredible task for anyone to unseat them. Kelowna features an incredibly deep roster led by a number of future NHLers, including Leon Draisaitl, Madison Bowey, Nick Merkley, Tyrell Goulbourne, Rourke Chartier, and Josh Morrissey.

Kelowna went to the Western Conference Finals last season, the second round the year prior, and was swept in the first round in 2012. The Rockets’ veterans have a wealth of playoff experience that will prove to be beneficial as they look to finally put it all together for a deep run.

Jackson Whistle is a bit of a question mark in goal, as he had a solid regular season playing behind a sound defensive unit but is untested in the playoffs.

In the end, it’s hard to bet against a team that led the Western Conference in goals scored and the entire WHL in goals against. – TP

Eastern Conference team to beat

The Brandon Wheat Kings edged out Kelowna for the Scotty Munro Trophy as the league’s top regular-season team this season. All eyes are going to be on them as they attempt to take that momentum through the playoffs with a hope to win the WHL Championship and earn a Memorial Cup berth. They had the best record and scored the most goals in the league but may not be the team to beat in the East.

Brandon played in the weaker East Division and its record, while impressive, came against the hands of the Moose Jaws, Prince Alberts and Saskatoons of the world. The Central Division is the tougher division in the East with every team but one making the playoffs. Calgary won the division and has been on fire in the second half of the season.

The Hitmen play solid defense, have skill and play a grittier game than Brandon does. Nobody can run and gun with the Wheat Kings but Calgary might be able to slow them down. The Hitmen have elite scorers like Adam Tambellini, Jake Virtanen and defenseman Travis Sanheim. They gave up the fewest goals in the Eastern Conference and if their goaltending holds up, look for Calgary to win the Eastern Conference.– AE

Eastern Conference dark horse

It’s hard to refer to a team that won 45 games as a dark horse but don’t count out the Medicine Hat Tigers. They finished one point behind Calgary for the Central Division title and are every bit as formidable.

The Tigers feature a giant back end that will hit you and make it tough to find room on the ice. If you do get by their defense you’ll then have to find a way to beat goalie Marek Langhammer.

Medicine Hat can score as well. While its forward group is on the smaller size, Trevor Cox and Cole Sanford can light the lamp as well as anyone. Cox finished second to Oliver Bjorkstrand in the league’s scoring race with 109 points and Sanford was fourth with 95.

If Medicine Hat can survive a tough first-round matchup with Red Deer, the Tigers will move on to what should be a great series with Calgary in the second round. – AE

Western Conference dark horse

The Victoria Royals enter the postseason as the Western Conference’s fifth seed, but with the new playoff format this season will have a first-round matchup against the Prince George Cougars, who barely squeaked into the playoffs as the seventh seed with 67 points, just four more than Kamloops, which finished ninth in the conference.

The Royals feature an experienced group of talented players, including Austin Carroll, Tyler Soy, Brandon Magee, and Greg Chase up front, and Joe Hicketts, Travis Brown, and Jack Walker on the blue line. Victoria is a deep team that finished third in the conference in goals scored and fourth in goals against.

Coleman Vollrath has been solid in net all season, posting a .905 save percentage and 2.99 goals-against-average en route to a 28-15-3-1 record. The Royals are healthy entering the playoffs and boast a talented and deep group that could surprise some people. – TP

Western Conference first-round upset alert

With the new playoff seeding this year, any upset prediction we could make wouldn’t seem like too much of a stretch, with the exception of a Tri-City-over-Kelowna pick, which I’m not quite foolish enough to make. Those two represent the eighth and first seeds, respectively, while Victoria (5) and Prince George (8) will face off, Everett (2) will have home-ice advantage against Spokane (6), and Portland (3) and Seattle (4) will bring the intensity of their rivalry to the postseason.

The Cougars won three of their eight contests with B.C. Division rival Victoria, so they should be competitive, but it’s tough to see a young Prince George team overcoming an experienced and veteran Royals club in a best-of-seven series.

If there’s a lower seed with a very good chance of defeating its favored opponent, it’s Seattle. The Thunderbirds won seven of their head-to-head meetings with the Winterhawks during the regular season, although that’s not a great barometer as it was rare in their 12 matchups for either team to be at full strength. It’s sure to be a great series between two teams that play very different styles and we should see it go to six or seven games. Portland’s elite forward line led by Oliver Bjorkstrand and Nic Petan will be challenged by a T-Birds team that allowed the third-fewest goals in the West and has a goalie in Taran Kozun capable of stealing games and frustrating his opponents. – TP

Eastern Conference first-round upset alert

The upset alert went off Thursday night as the Edmonton Oil Kings opened the playoffs by taking Game 1 against the top-seeded Wheat Kings. While that series instantly got more interesting, don’t look for the upset there.

Last year the Regina Pats were taken down by Brandon in the first round in an upset. This year, they could face the same fate against Swift Current. The Pats are the East Division’s second seed after finishing eight points ahead of the Broncos.

Regina is an interesting team that traded away a number of high-end 19-year-old players during the season despite being near the top of the standings at the time. The Pats have remained competitive but are not the same team they were at the start of the season. To make matters worse they will not have rookie sensation Sam Steel for the playoffs due to injury.

Swift Current stumbled through the last couple of weeks in the season but won two straight at the end to solidify its spot. The Broncos are led by 2015 NHL Draft eligible Jake DeBrusk, who potted 42 goals this season. He leads a Broncos team that has a solid top line and could give Regina some trouble. – AE

Eastern Conference player to watch

Playoff success often comes down to goaltending. The team with the best goalie usually takes the day, something we saw last year with Edmonton. Of course, you have to have a supporting cast that can posses the puck and drive the play, but if you’re not stopping the puck, you have no chance.

Brandon’s Jordan Papirny will be a key player to keep an eye on in the postseason. Playing in his second full WHL season, he improved his numbers across the board and he led the Wheat Kings to 44 wins while he was in net. If he can keep up his stellar play and give the high-flying Wheat Kings the timely saves they need, he could end up in Quebec for the Memorial Cup in May.

Papriny’s playoffs didn’t start well as he was beaten 11 seconds into Thursday’s opener against Edmonton. He went on to give up four goals on the night but didn’t play poorly. Brandon has the offense, Papirny needs to give the Wheat Kings the goaltending. – AE

Western Conference player to watch

Portland’s Oliver Bjorkstrand has been on a different level this season, leading the WHL in points (118) and goals (63), among a number of other offensive categories, despite missing 13 contests. In fact, his 63 tallies were the most of any player in the entire Canadian Hockey League.

However, it would be a disservice to Bjorkstrand to focus solely on his offensive skills. He’s also one of Portland’s top penalty killers and the most dangerous shorthanded player in the league, as made evident by his eight goals while on the penalty kill, which also led the WHL. His outstanding speed and incredible hockey sense mean he’s almost always in the right place at both ends of the ice. If a team is going to beat Portland this year, it’s going to need to make sure that a good portion of Bjorkstrand’s time is spent in his own zone, which is no simple task. – TP

Western Conference theme of the playoffs

Portland has played in the WHL final for the past four consecutive seasons, but this year Kelowna is a heavy favorite in the Western Conference. Can a high-powered Winterhawks offense led by a few superstars overcome some defensive question marks to make it five years in a row?

As the third seed, Portland won’t be seeing any easy matchups in the postseason. The Winterhawks will start with a rivalry matchup against Seattle that, if they win, will surely result in some fatigue that will carry over into the other rounds. With a path that almost surely goes through Kelowna, the Winterhawks will have to overcome a number of obstacles, both internally and around the league, if they hope to continue their impressive streak. – TP

Eastern Conference theme of the playoffs

Coming into the season the general consensus was that the Brandon Wheat Kings were a year away from truly contending for a WHL Championship. They have one of the youngest teams and while those young players are dripping with talent, it still seemed early for them. They have turned that notion aside, however, as they burst out of the gates and haven’t looked back.

Can that young talent carry them against more experienced teams like Calgary and Medicine Hat?

The Wheat Kings surprised in the playoffs last year when they upset Regina early and eventually lost to Edmonton. If they gained enough experience from that lesson and can grind out wins against the tough Central Division teams, the future may be this year for Brandon. – AE

Follow Tim Pigulski and Andy Eide on Twitter at @tpigulski and @andyeide.

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