EVERETT — Scenario No. 1 among the Everett Silvertips’ playoff possibilities is straightforward: Win all three games this weekend — beginning tonight against Seattle — and earn home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs.
Anything other than that and it’s a big mess.
The final weekend of the WHL regular season has arrived, and Everett heads into it with a multitude of possible conclusions as far as the playoffs are concerned.
Everett can finish anywhere between fourth and sixth in the Western Conference standings. The fourth-place position is particularly important. The team that finishes fourth is the last one to have home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
The Tips also still have four possible first-round opponents. Should Everett finish fourth or fifth, the Tips probably face Seattle, with an outside chance of playing Kelowna. If Everett finishes sixth, the Tips face either Spokane or Tri-City, whichever does not win the U.S. Division and WHL regular season titles.
All of which has curiosities piqued this weekend in locations throughout the Western Conference.
“As an older player being in the league four years, you always look at the standings and where you’re going to end up,” Everett leading scorer Dan Gendur said. “I don’t know if it’s as important to the younger players — I know when I was younger it didn’t really matter. But we want to finish fourth and have home-ice advantage.”
The drama going into the final weekend of the season stands in stark contrast to Everett’s previous two seasons. A year ago, the Tips had clinched the league’s best record with a week remaining in the regular season, and the U.S. Division title was for all intents and purposes wrapped up by Christmas. Two years ago, the Tips clinched the division title with five games remaining in the season. As a result the season’s final games were essentially meaningless.
Not so this year.
“The last couple years we as assistant coaches already were getting prepared for our first-round opponent, getting video edited and stuff,” Everett coach John Becanic recalled. “We could play one of three or four teams now, so there’s no work to be done, and there probably won’t be any more clarity until Sunday.”
Everett hopes that when the dust settles they’ll be playing at home when the playoffs open. Not only do the Tips play better at home — 21-12-0-2 at Comcast Arena versus 18-15-0-1 on the road — it means having home games on the weekends, when Everett is particularly good for bringing in boisterous crowds.
“Home ice is a huge advantage,” defenseman Dane Crowley said. “To play here (at Comcast Arena) on a Friday and Saturday night is a lot better than on a Wednesday or Thursday, so we want to get that.”
But accomplishing that won’t be easy. This weekend includes two crucial head-to-head matchups with Seattle, sandwiched around a road game against Chilliwack. Everett is just 2-5-0-1 against Seattle this season.
Nevertheless, the Tips are confident about their chances of pulling it off.
“Our chances are as good as anyone else’s,” Becanic said. “You’ve just got to win your games. It’s not like we haven’t won three in a row. People have called us a streaky team, I guess we can hope for the positive side of the streakiness.”
But as nice as it would be to earn home-ice advantage, Everett isn’t dwelling on it.
“To me, home ice is a byproduct of everything we want to accomplish, which is playing hard, playing at a playoff-type pace and winning,” Becanic said. “So home ice to me is off the flow chart, there’s a lot of things that come before it. If we win, then home ice happens.”
Everett does hold one small edge. Should there end up a tie, the first tiebreaker is total wins. In any possible tie situation, Everett will finish with more wins than either Seattle or Kelowna, thus winning the tiebreaker.
And however things end up playing out, the Tips are looking forward to playing meaningful games this weekend.
“It’s only going to help us down the playoff stretch,” Gendur said. “Last year, I think we were a little bit complacent going into the playoffs. This year, I think if we play hard we’re going to be a lot more prepared.”
Slap shots: Everett should have two more of its injured players available tonight. Winger Kyle Beach, who sat out Wednesday’s 3-1 home loss against Tri-City because of a fractured orbital in his face, practiced Thursday with a full face shield. Defenseman Chris de la Lande also has recovered from the leg injury that sidelined him for six games. … Left wing Cameron Abney has been officially added to Everett’s roster. The 16-year-old prospect from Algergrove, B.C., became eligible to join the team full time after his team, the North Delta Devils of the junior B Pacific International Junior Hockey League, was eliminated from the playoffs.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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