Silvertips’ playoff picture coming together as season hits final week

The Everett Silvertips spent the weekend sweeping the Kelowna Rockets in a home-and-home set. Because of that, the Tips increased the odds that they’ll face the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.

Everett won both its games in the penultimate week of the WHL season, winning 6-2 at home against the Rockets on Friday, then winning 4-2 in the return meeting in Kelowna on Saturday.

“Overall I thought we played two good hockey games,” Everett coach Dennis Williams said via text message about the victories over Kelowna. “Kelowna is a very good hockey team with some high-end players. They are well coached and we knew we had to play a solid 60 minutes to have a chance to win. I felt our puck management was good, and we had contributions from all players in all positions.”

And now Everett’s first-round playoff fate is closer to being settled. Everett (43-18-2-3) was officially locked into the Western Conference’s No. 3 seed after the Portland Winterhawks clinched the U.S. Division championship with their 5-3 victory over Wenatchee on Saturday. That means the Tips face the conference’s No. 6 seed in the first round.

Beating Kelowna twice in regulation during the weekend — Everett was in control throughout Friday’s game, then broke a 2-2 tie with goals on either side of the second intermission on Saturday — made a first-round meeting between the teams far more likely. Going into the weekend the Rockets had earned points in nine straight to surge into fifth place in the conference, and Kelowna was even entertaining thoughts of earning home-ice advantage in the first round.

However, the two defeats, combined with Vancouver picking up a pair of victories against Kamloops, pushed Kelowna back into sixth, one point behind the Giants. Those two teams finish the season with a home-and-home set, which will likely determine who Everett faces in the first round, though there’s still an outside chance Victoria will end up in sixth.

Whoever winds up as Everett’s opponent has its work cut out for it. The Tips’ two victories gave the Tips a five-game winning streak and points in 10 straight (8-0-1-1), making Everett one of the league’s hottest teams on the eve of the postseason.

“We set out at the beginning of the year with a goal to make the playoffs and we are excited about that opportunity,” Williams said. “We know that no matter who our opponent is they are going to be a challenge. We will take this week of practice and games no different than any other weekend.”

Three stars of the week

Third star: Caden Brown. The 18-year-old forward scored a goal in both games, and he was part of an Everett checking line alongside Cade Zaplitny and Beau Courtney that made life difficult for the Rockets.

Second star: Austin Roest. The forward in his 19-year-old season racked up three goals and an assist across the two games. Roest was the play driver in Friday’s game, when he had two goals and an assist.

First star: Julius Miettinen. The rookie forward in his 17-year-old season totalled a goal and four assists. He registered multiple points in both games, and he now has eight straight games with two or more points.

The week ahead

Everett concludes the regular season with a pair of home games this weekend, hosting Wenatchee on Saturday and Tri-City on Sunday.

Wenatchee (33-28-4-0) is trying to fend off Vancouver and Kelowna for the Western Conference’s No. 4 seed to the playoffs and therefore home-ice advantage in the first round. The Wild are led by 20-year-old defenseman Graham Sward (15 goals, 64 assists) and 19-year-old forward Kenta Isogai (31 goals, 56 assists).

Tri-City (22-40-2-1) is finishing the season on a terrible run. The Americans have lost eight straight, and at 7-26-1-0 Tri-City has the league’s worst record since the holiday break, thus falling out of playoff contention. The Americans have a pair of towering goal-scoring forwards in 19-year-old Jake Sloan (31 goals, 38 assists) and 20-year-old Parker Bell (33 goals, 27 assists).

In a strange twist of fate, there’s a chance Everett would be better off losing the game against Tri-City. The Americans are neck-and-neck with Kamloops for the league’s worst record, with Tri-City having one point more than the Blazers with both teams having three games remaining. The team that finishes with the worst record gets the most ping pong balls in the WHL prospects draft lottery. Everett owns Kamloops’ first-round pick because of last year’s Olen Zellweger/Ryan Hofer trade. So Everett has a stake in having Tri-City finish ahead of Kamloops. The pick owned by the team that finishes last has a 12-in-21 chance at first overall and the opportunity to draft generational defenseman Landon DuPont, who is a strong candidate to be granted exceptional status and be eligible to play in the WHL as a 15-year-old.