Winterhawks get ready for conference finals

There is no shortage of enmity between the Portland Winterhawks and Kamloops Blazers as they prepare to face off at Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Friday. Last year, Kamloops pushed the Winterhawks to seven games in their second-round playoff series; they’ll meet again this weekend, this time with a spot in the championchip up for grabs.

Season series

The two teams met four times during the 2012–13 regular season. Oliver Bjorkstrand scored two goals on Nov. 11 as the Winterhawks won at home 3-1. Five days later, in Kamloops, the Blazers exacted revenge for the defeat as they shelled Portland goaltender Mac Carruth for five goals on 28 shots in a 6-4 victory.

On Jan. 30, Portland came out flat at the Memorial Coliseum and entered the locker room down 2-0 after one period. But they leveled the score with goals by Ty Rattie and Joe Mahon just 34 seconds apart in the middle period, then scored three more in the final frame for a 5-2 win.

The two teams met most recently in British Columbia on Feb. 20. Carruth stopped all 27 shots sent his way that night, and Brendan Leipsic and Nicolas Petan each scored their 42nd goals of the season to lead Portland to a 3-0 shutout road victory.

How they got to the conference finals

Portland needed six games to get past the Everett Silvertips, going 1-2 in Portland and winning all three contests on the road to advance to the second round. There they swept the Spokane Chiefs, scoring 18 goals while allowing just three and recording two shutouts in the process.

Kamloops won two at home and two on the road as they knocked off the Victoria Royals in six games in their opening-round series. Defensively, they allowed more shots per game in the next round against the Kelowna Rockets and were taken to overtime in games three and four, but they still managed to come away with the sweep.

Offensive firepower galore

The Winterhawks and Blazers are ranked first and third, respectively, in playoff scoring as they enter the Western Conference Finals, and feature eight of the top 10 scorers from this WHL postseason between them. Kamloops’ J.C. Lipon leads all skaters with 16 assists and 21 points through 10 games, while Portland’s Rattie and the Blazers’ Kale Kessy are tied for the goal-scoring lead with 11 apiece. Seven Winterhawks and four Blazers have at least 10 points after two rounds of postseason play.

X-factor: the goalies

Mac Carruth continues to set postseason records in his final run with the Winterhawks. The Portland net-minder is ranked third in postseason goals-against average and second in shutouts. In the series against Spokane, he passed Lanny Ramage’s Winterhawks record for postseason shutouts, and also eased past Cam Ward for the all-time WHL record in playoff wins for a goalie.

At the opposite end of the rink, Kamloops’ Cole Cheveldave was bombarded throughout both of the first two series and is the only remaining goaltender in the playoffs with a sub-.900 save percentage. He is also the only goalie of the final quartet to allow more than two goals per game this postseason.

Outlook

While Portland has a veteran record-holder in their crease, Kamloops hopes Cheveldave can rebound against the top offense in the playoffs. No team has a more diverse and multipronged offensive attack than the Winterhawks, and as long as Carruth can allow fewer than four goals a game Portland is in good shape to advance to their third consecutive WHL Championship appearance.