It’s about to go down.
The Everett Silvertips and Kelowna Rockets are set to engage in the hockey equivalent of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the infamous Wild West shootout in which the Earps and the Clantons duked it out for control of the streets of Tombstone, Arizona.
The showdown has arrived.
The best of the best in the WHL’s Western Conference butt heads this weekend as the conference’s top two teams go to battle twice in Kelowna.
Everett, the top team in the U.S. Division, takes on Kelowna, the top team in both the B.C. Division and the league as a whole, on Friday and Saturday. Friday’s game comes with the added attention of being televised throughout the Pacific Northwest and western Canada.
So the Tips recognize this is their chance to prove to the rest of the league that they deserve to be considered among the title contenders.
“They’re a good hockey team, they have a lot of firepower over there,” Everett captain Kohl Bauml said via cell phone as the Tips traveled from Prince George to Kelowna on Thursday. “At the same time we’d like to think we have a good hockey team, too.”
Kelowna is everyone’s runaway favorite to win it all this season. The Rockets have the league’s best record, and they rank second in the league in both goals scored (190) and goals allowed (114), giving them by far the league’s best goal differential at plus-76.
The Rockets already had what was considered to be the WHL’s best team, then Kelowna went out and added a pair of 19-year-old first-round NHL draft picks by acquiring center Leon Draisaitl and defenseman Josh Morrissey from Prince Albert in separate deals. The trades prompted many observers to hand the Ed Chynoweth Cup to Kelowna, despite there being more than two months remaining in the regular season.
But Everett comes to Kelowna with something to prove. The Tips, almost completely unnoticed outside of Everett, are the hottest team in the WHL, having won six straight and nine of their past 10. During those 10 games the Tips have outscored their opponents by an obscene total of 44-13, and almost all that damage has been done on the road.
Therefore, the Tips are bursting with confidence as they prepare to take on the league’s top team, and they want to make it clear the Rockets shouldn’t be planning any parade routes just yet.
“Towards the (Jan. 10) trade deadline teams were loading up, and we weren’t able to get a deal to go through, so I think people counted us out for the rest of the year,” Bauml said. “But since the trade deadline we’ve played some good hockey, so it’s a testament to the guys we have in the locker room right now. We’ve stuck with it and we’re having a lot of fun right now.”
The teams come into the showdown at opposite ends of the fatigue spectrum. Everett will be completing a grueling four-games-in-five-nights road trip that required more than 15 hours on the bus, and the Tips also had to play a skater short in Wednesday’s game. Meanwhile, Kelowna should be well rested, considering the Rockets haven’t played since last Friday’s 5-2 home loss to Seattle.
“Our energy level is pretty good, actually,” Bauml said. “Everyone knows this is an important weekend, so no one is staying up late or anything. The travel and playing four in five can be fatiguing. But at the same time the excitement and emotion of the games, with it being first versus first in the Western Conference, should wipe away all the fatigue.”
Countering the fatigue factor is the Everett’s momentum. The Tips are coming off an impressive two-game sweep in Prince George, winning 6-1 Tuesday and 4-1 Wednesday. Yet despite the scores, the Tips didn’t think they played particularly well against the Cougars.
“The games were OK, they weren’t our best hockey,” said Bauml, who scored two goals in both games. “Getting the four points was the important thing. But we know we have another level, and we’ll have to have that versus Kelowna this weekend.
“They have a high-powered offense, so if you give them chances they’re going to put puck in the net,” Bauml added. “We’re going to have to limit our mistakes and not give them any unnecessary chances.”
And if the Tips can come away with anything from this weekend, they may finally begin being talked about along with the rest of the WHL’s contenders.
Slap shots
Kelowna may be without the league’s top goal scorer, Rourke Chartier, for this weekend’s two games. Chartier is considered questionable because of an upper-body injury. … Both teams are expecting to get a key player back just in time for Friday’s game. Everett defenseman Noah Juulsen and Kelowna leading scorer Nick Merkley both took part in the CHL Top Prospects Game on Thursday in St. Catharines, Ontario. … Everett is expected to be without defenseman Jordan Wharrie for the games. Wharrie suffered what’s believed to be a sprained knee on a knee-on-knee hit from Prince George’s Sam Ruopp on Tuesday. Ruopp was given a major penalty and game misconduct for the hit, and he was subsequently suspended five games by the league.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
