BTN Dynamic Dozen: Oil Kings, Winterhawks surge into top three

Cue the tired jokes about how the West is in.

Rough weeks by two of the Quebec league's heavyweights and some hot streaks by Western Hockey League teams mean the Tri-City Americans are being tailed by the Edmonton Oil Kings and Portland Winterhawks, who are riding a franchise-record 17-game home win streak.

1. Tri-City Americans, WHL (.572 RPI, —) — What goes up must come down. The Ams' three losses were all to surging teams, Kamloops, Spokane and Portland, so they stay on top by a slim margin. Goalie Ty Rimmer (12 goals allowed on 98 shots in three starts) betrayed some human qualities after playing so far above his head all season. They also had to play a game minus leading scorer Brendan Shinnimin, who incurred a one-game suspension for reaching the league-mandated limit for embellishment penalties. Fortunately, there are no embellishment penalties for media types.

2. Portland Winterhawks, WHL (.563, +4) — Bless you, obscure rules, since the Winterhawks' slot matches the number of Europeans they currently have in their lineup, though that could change. Former star Nino Niederreiter is spinning his wheels on Long Island, sparking questions of whether he could get returned to junior for more ice time. Meantime, the Winterhawks are hardly missing him, what with Ty Rattie being the CHL's first player to reach the 40-goal checkpoint and ex-St. Cloud State centre Cam Reid notching five points in his first four games. Portland, specifically its reliance on an all-out offensive style, its power play and goalie Mac Carruth stopping everything, will get tested this weekend with a two-game series at rival Spokane.

3. Edmonton Oil Kings, WHL (.560, +1) — T-minus eight days until the big East-West showdown on Jan. 25 between the Ams and Oil Kings. That's plenty of time for star scorer Michael St. Croix to start another streak after suffering a personal cold snap by going pointless in four games in a row, an eternity by his standards.

The Oil Kings were cooled off in their final game last week by Calgary. That hardly hurt their ranking since the Hitmen were the week's hottest team. Edmonton could be excused somewhat for that performance since it had a hard-fought overtime game the previous night, when they proved their mettle by overcoming Buffalo Sabres prospect Nathan Lieuwen's goaltending to win at Kootenay.

4. Shawinigan Cataractes, QMJHL (.553, +1) — World junior standout Brandon Gormley has been in blue and gold for only 10 days and already he's helped inspire comparisons between this Shawi squad and the gang that fell one win shy of the President's Cup in 2009. They did a number on the Maritimes last weekend with three wins in a row and evidently did a number on southwestern Ontario by adding Taylor Carnevale to the lineup. They're in excellent position to take over first overall, since after this weekend they have eight home games in a row.

5. Quebec Remparts, QMJHL (.552, -3) — Coach, GM and part-owner Patrick Roy, in the wake of three one-goal losses in a row, is getting his Lou Holtz on in advance of playing surging Shawinigan on Friday ("It's not good timing for us"). They have a whack of injuries with star forwards Mikhail Grigorenko and Anthony Duclair each among those in sick bay, meaning they might have to play a more conservative game over the week or so.

6. Saint John Sea Dogs, QMJHL (.551, +2) — In this week's edition of Small Sample Size Theatre, we point out that two-time Team USA forward Charlie Coyle had 10 shots on goal in his first two Sea Dogs game. If this trend continues, it will paint a picture of a forward who might have his way with the league as he gets more comfortable. In other words, it wasn't isolated that he scored in both of his first two games.

7. Plymouth Whalers, OHL (.543, —) — There was a school of thought that Plymouth needed to add another defenceman at the trade deadline. They did not, of course, and they've allowed two goals or less in all but one game so far this month. Starting goalie Scott Wedgewood has thrice held opponents to a single marker since returning from Team Canada, so feel free to start a pool on when he'll get his next shutout. Wait, did that last sentence jinx him?

8. Moose Jaw Warriors, WHL (.540, +1) — Coach Mike Stothers' team finally came home Sunday and what happened? They set a season high for goals on home ice. Of course, the big question about the Warriors resides in their own goal since first-year starter Luke Siemens has had a couple five-goal games in his four starts this month.

9. Kamloops Blazers, WHL (.539, +9) — Likely had their best week of the season, in between Colin Smith being the league's player of the week and ending Tri-City's 13-game win streak. Is there mass awareness that 17-year-old wing Tim Bozon, with 22 goals in 44 games, is lighting the lamp at roughly the same rate Niederreiter did as a 17-year-old Swiss rookie two seasons ago?

10. Victoriaville Tigres, WHL (.538, +1) — Saint John was an offensive juggernaut last season and it had six players score at least 20 goals. Victoriaville has barely needed two-thirds of the season to match that, with Philippe Maillet being one away from being the sixth member of the 20 club. Talk about a team to watch if you like a lot of scoring, since their 212 goals far and away leads the league.

11. Saskatoon Blades, WHL (.536, +3) — Young Alex Moodie has been a nice stopgap in goal during starter Andrey Makarov's continued absence, although the Blades probably can't count on scoring 15 goals in back-to-back games very often. Still, that might point out how much room there is for growth on the blueline, where conceivably all seven defencemen could be in the mix for the Memorial Cup season since Connor Cox is the sole 19-year-old.

12. London Knights, OHL (.533, -5) — It will take a while for the Knights' ranking to recover from a home-ice loss in regulation time to the Kingston Frontenacs, who have a mortal lock on the No. 58 spot in BTN's rankings. As expected though, they easily recovered to win their next two games, with Austin Watson having a big impact in a close win at Saginaw. Now winning this weekend's two-league Hishon Cup and getting mainstays Scott Harrington and Jared Knight back from injuries are at the top of the to-do list.

The next dozen — 13 (tied). Calgary Hitmen, WHL (.528, +12); 13 (tied). Niagara IceDogs, OHL (.528, +3); 15. Regina Pats, WHL (.527, -3); 16. Chicoutimi Saguenéens, QMJHL (.523, -6); 17. Acadie-Bathurst Titan, QMJHL (.521, +3); 18. Halifax Mooseheads, QMJHL (.517, -3); 19. Medicine Hat Tigers, WHL (.517, +4); 20. Spokane Chiefs, WHL (.525, +1); 21. Baie-Comeau Drakkar, QMJHL (.513, -8); 22. Kootenay Ice, WHL (.513, —); 23. Rimouski Océanic, QMJHL (.509, +1); 24. Brampton Battalion, OHL (.505, -5).

Hot team — Calgary Hitmen, WHL, up 12 spots (25th to tied for 13th).

Cold team — Baie-Comeau Drakkar, QMJHL, down eight (13th to 21st).

Looking (nowhere but) up — Erie Otters, OHL (.406 RPI). The percentage-point difference between No. 59 and No. 58 was twice the size of the difference between Nos. 1 and 2.

An explanation on rankings — Buzzing The Net uses Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) with a recency factor. RPI combines a team's record with the strength of its opponents to produce an overall rating. Our method also gives more weight to recently played games. Shootout wins and losses are classified as ties for philosophical and practical reasons. All three CHL leagues are considered equivalent in quality.

Editor's note: Ratings have been adjusted since publication to reflect Monday's three CHL games.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports . Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet (photo: The Canadian Press).