Portland, Tri-City tussle, race for final OHL berths highlight CHL’s closest races

Quite often, the final day of the regular season is like a visit with extended family, something that's best over with quickly. This week's three stars across the Canadian Hockey League could be the schedule makers in each major junior circuit. Come Sunday afternoon, the final game on the docket in each league — a Victoriaville-Rimouski match in the QMJHL, a likely do-or-die game for the OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds against a Kitchener Rangers team locked into its berth and a Seattle-Portland tilt in the WHL — could each have playoff repercussions.

In many ways, the chase for the last few playoff spots in major junior is often more riveting than the first round of the actual post-season. Getting into the playoffs, even though the No. 8 seed advances maybe once, twice in a lifetime (case in point: the London Knights upsetting Plymouth in 2002), means some revenue in the club's coffers and a feeling the season wasn't a total loss. At the top of the table, finishing first means a better playoff draw and the promise of home-ice advantage some time later in the spring.

In the spirit of the thing, here's a look at the five best races across the CHL.

Tri-City vs. Portland (and Edmonton). At stake — The Western Conference regular-season title (and Scotty Munro Trophy as regular-season champion). There are some script problems in this one, between the complicating matter of the teams not going head-to-head, one of the principals being off with a NHL team and having two different titles in play.

The Americans (49-17-2-2) let a costly point away get away Tuesday with a 5-4 overtime loss to last-place Prince George. That left them one point ahead of Edmonton (47-15-3-4) for first overall and two up up on conference rival Portland (48-17-3-1), but with each holding a valuable game in hand. Tri-City has to like its chances, though. The Americans, led by CHL scoring leader Brendan Shinnimin, are at home all week with games vs. Everett and Spokane, the latter on Saturday evening.

The Winterhawks, with Sven Bärtschi's availability hanging by the work of the Calgary Flames physiotherapist, should win out. The highest-scoring team in the WHL (312 goals) finishes against the Victoria Royals and Seattle Thunderbirds, the two most porous teams in their conference.

The Oil Kings, in all honesty, would probably favour keeping their lineup intact over the small mathematical advantage conferred by finishing first overall. They finish with three games in four nights, the last being against an already eliminated Red Deer team whom they had some bad dealings with on Sunday.

Everett vs. Seattle vs. Victoria. At stake — The final two berths in the WHL. Thunderbirds goalie Calvin Pickard has played 253 games for Seattle. Five (holds up fingers) have been in the playoffs and those came when he was 17.

The T-Birds might have motivation beyond making sure their graduating goalie doesn't leave on the sour note of three seasons in a row with a save percentage above .900 and no post-season. It might not be for nothing that Seattle is playing desperate hockey during a week when it was disclosed their arena has lost more than $1-million US since it opened. (Granted, if a team's arena being unprofitable equalled wins, last year's Memorial Cup parade would have been through Kingston, not Saint John.)

The three-way race will likely break on Saturday's Everett-Seattle game. The 'Tips, who have gone 14-12-1-1 since January thanks to the return of high NHL draft prospect Ryan Murray and Kent Simpson's goaltending, sit seventh with 52 points and three games to play. Victoria is next with 51, but its only remaining games are against powerhouse Portland.

Pickard and pals, who hold a game in hand over the Royals, cracked the 50-point barrier by beating Seattle on Tuesday. They like need at least four points out of their last three games. That includes a return game with Spokane before finishing with the 'Tips and Portland on Sunday.

Windsor vs. Guelph vs. Sault Ste. Marie. At stake — The final two berths in the OHL's Western Conference. Windsor has the most points, Guelph is getting front-line players back from injury and the the Greyhounds are the most desperate.

The 'Hounds (60 points, ninth place) finish off with games vs. two of their conference's top three teams sandwiched around goalie Jack Campbell facing his old Windsor friends in Saturday's season finale. In other words, a team which has been its own worst enemy at times now has no margin for error. Guelph (62 points, in eighth) has a good chance to come up the middle and finish ahead of the other two. The Storm should be able to get at least four points from their game with Erie and home-and-home with Owen Sound, whom they have beaten twice in a row.

Coming into the season, any playoffs would have been a bonus for the rebuilding Spitfires (63 points, in seventh). By the looks of it, one win this week would be enough to clinch a berth. They're almost assured of a matchup with a rival in London or Plymouth whether they finish seventh or eighth. Speaking of which ...

London vs. Plymouth. At stake — First overall in the OHL. For snappy mixed metaphors, you can't beat saying the Knights' chances of going wire-to-wire in first place hang by a thread. By the time they play again, Plymouth could be in top spot. The Whalers' play the next of their last two games on Wednesday in Sault Ste. Marie.

The Knights hold a game in hand, so the odds are in their favour. In practical reality, they are struggling to score, the power play is misfiring and goalie Michael Houser probably shouldn't play all of this week's 3-in-3. He's played nearly 400 more minutes than anyone else in the league.

Coach-GM Mike Vellucci's Whalers are on a nine-game roll. Both teams have a common opponent with a home game against Sarnia, which is sitting out Nail Yakupov but has Alex Galchenyuk back in the lineup. In any event, try to look past the irony the Knights could clinch the Hamilton Spectator Trophy for best regular-season record in a game against the Erie Otters.

Quebec vs. Victoriaville. At stake — Fourth place in the QMJHL and a more favourable playoff draw. This should have been wrapped up a week early, but the Remparts let the high-scoring Tigres back in by losing twice last weekend. Quebec has a one-point lead over Victoriaville entering a Friday-Saturday homestand vs. third overall Blainville-Boisbriand and a Chicoutimi team which can be a handful. They are soldiering on without injured veteran goalie Louis Domingue, leaving 17-year-old François Brassard as the sole alternative. Some points in the Remparts' favour, though, are that coach-GM Patrick Roy has all week to work his team into shape. Another point in their favour is that the Saguenéens have lost star centre Jean-Gabriel Pageau for the rest of the regular season.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.