LYNNWOOD – The Western Hockey League’s regular season has entered the final three weeks, and once again the Everett Silvertips find themselves involved in a stretch-run dogfight.
But this time it’s not a free-for-all for first place. Instead, this time it’s a mano-y-mano duel to see who gets to play the first and last games of their first-round playoff series within friendly confines.
The Silvertips and Portland Winter Hawks are engaged in a joust for second place in the U.S. Division, and whoever comes out on top will earn home-ice advantage for their inevitable first-round playoff matchup.
“I think it’s huge,” Everett captain Mitch Love said of getting home-ice advantage. “It’s very important to us and very important to our fans that we get home-ice advantage and take advantage of that.”
Everett, which prevailed in a four-way fight for first last season, and Portland are currently neck-and-neck for second in the division. The Silvertips (29-24-8-2, 68 points) have a three-point edge on the Winter Hawks (28-25-5-4, 65 points). However, Portland has 10 games remaining to Everett’s nine.
And it’s a near lock that Everett and Portland will finish in second and third. It would take a miracle for either team to catch first-place Seattle, which has 82 points. Similarly, it would require a dramatic plunge for either team to fall behind fourth-place Tri-City (56 points) or fifth-place Spokane (54 points).
So Everett and Portland appear destined for a first-round playoff meeting, and the next three weeks it’s certain both teams will be doing their share of scoreboard watching.
“It’s better to be ahead of Portland than behind them,” Everett leading scorer Torrie Wheat said. “It’d be better to have a little more of a gap because they’re playing awesome right now. We know if we want to have home-ice advantage we have to win the majority of the next few games here.”
How big is home-ice advantage? This season Everett is 18-9-4-1 at home, 11-15-4-1 on the road. Portland is 16-11-2-1 at home, 12-14-3-3 on the road.
“I’m sure if you look at the stats in the league the last five years, you’d see a huge majority of teams with home ice in the playoffs win,” Everett right wing Alex Leavitt said. “So it’s crucial, especially with our team this year because we’ve struggled on the road.”
However, Everett won playoff series against Vancouver and Kelowna last season without the home-ice advantage, and home ice has had little effect on the season series with the Winter Hawks – the Tips are 2-2 against Portland at home, 2-0-2 in Portland.
“The bottom line for us is if we’re going to go to the Memorial Cup, we’re going to have to win no matter where we play,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “If you’re going to get the job done, you better learn to win on the road. Obviously if you give us a choice we’ll take home-ice advantage. But you have to win four playoff series and it looks like the most we’d ever have is home-ice advantage in one. So if you can’t win on the road in the first round, then what will make you think you’re going to win the next three?”
Everett would appear to have a more difficult remaining schedule. The Silvertips have four games remaining against first-place Seattle and play five of their last nine games on the road. Portland has six of its final 10 games at home.
It may all boil down to March 12 and 13, when the teams go head-to-head in back-to-back games, first in Everett and then in Portland.
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