Portland Winterhawks claim the mythical BTN Dynamic Dozen title

Apparently math is a thing, especially when it comes to providing an epilogue for the most obvious odd couple to ever jointly represent the league hosting the Memorial Cup tournament.

Last spring, the Portland Winterhawks were at the Cup as WHL champs and the Saskatoon Blades were there as the host team, much maligned after being swept in the first round of the playoffs. You know the ironic way it played out, with Saskatoon being the only team to defeat the Nathan MacKinnon-led eventual winner Halifax Mooseheads, who beat Portland twice on its way to taking the trophy home to the Maritimes. That round-robin win over Halifax, to some, provided a justification for Saskatoon being there.

Now, long after the fact, it's a little amusing that the Winterhawks and Blades were the bookend teams in the final BTN's Dynamic Dozen of this season. The 'Hawks take top spot after posting 54 wins and 113 points against a very demanding U.S. Division schedule; the Blades' late swoon enabled them to fall past all of the abject also-rans (looking at you, Lethbridge and Saint John) to finish 60th. You cannot make that up. Sorry to make this dump on the Blades day.

1. Portland Winterhawks, WHL (.585 RPI, +2.0 SRS, —) — It might be kismet that Nathan Lieuwen made his NHL goaltending debut with the Buffalo Sabres right before Portland shoved off on another playoff run, since the link is still fresh in some minds. Lieuwen's breakout with the Kootenay Ice three years ago involved stymieing the 'Hawks in the WHL championship to get back on the pros' radar. Take that as a reminder that anything can happen in the spring if a good team gets lights-out 'tending against a great team.

Portland certainly has the makings of the latter, what with the 25 wins in 26 games since Mathew Dumba traded Minnesota Wild green for Portland's red. It pulled off that run while facing what, by the numbers, amounts to the fourth-toughest schedule in all of major junior. Drawing a Vancouver Giants outfit that is missing No. 1 defenceman Dalton Thrower seems to be a fortuitous break for Round 1. Only one other WHL series includes two teams with more combined penalty minutes than the Winterhawks (1,194) and Giants (1,138), filling one with a mental Vine of various Vancouver players trying to goad feisty 91-point scorer Brendan Leipsic into retaliatory penalties.

2. Kelowna Rockets, WHL (.575 RPI, +1.8 SRS, —) — Twelve months ago, Kelowna was so racked by injuries that it barely got by the Seattle Thunderbirds in the first round. The payoff was that a lot of the youngsters in their stable — current rookies such as Nick Merkley and Justin Kirkland — earned battlefield promotions since they were the only healthy options. That presumably went a long way toward helping Kelowna achieve the junior hockey ideal of having the underage and theseasoned players firing on all cylinders going into the playoffs. The odds are that Kelowna and Portland will see each other in the league semifinal.

3. Guelph Storm, OHL (.574 RPI, +2.1 SRS, —) — Guelph's playoff storylines, on top of being No. 1 with a bullet, revolve around the franchise's recent dearth of playoff runs and Toronto Maple Leafs-drafted captain Matt Finn missing last season's big dance with a knee injury. Those are intertwined, since without Finn the 2013 Storm's already long odds of beating an older Kitchener Rangers team buttressed by the best junior goalie in captivity, John Gibson, got even longer.

That was then, this is know. Guelph is going to be surrounded by doubts because that's just how it works when a high seed hasn't played till May. Like the 2011 Owen Sound Attack, it's a balanced and deep team, led by now 49-goal man, Scott Kosmachuk, who apparently will be free to suit up for the playoff opener. Five others tallied 75 points during the season, so shutting down each of the first two lines simultaneously will be tough.

4. London Knights, OHL (.570 RPI, +1.7 SRS, —) — For those wondering what was different about the two-time Ontario champs' regular season compared the previous two, the Knights were sixth in goals against after being third in 2012-13 and '11-12. That can be put down to having graduated both Olli Määttä and Scott Harrington to the Pittsburgh Penguins organizations. It also traces back to having a dozen games with the two teams they're sandwiched in between here in the Double-D. London's chances of a near-historic three-peat might hinge on the play of Nikita Zadorov and the overage trio of Brady Austin, Alex Basso and Zach Bell on the back end.

The last two major junior teams that hosted the Memorial Cup the season after winning a league title, the 2004 Kelowna Rockets and '07 Vancouver Giants, did enter it through the so-called 'front door.' Both recovered to win the grand prize in May, though.

5. Erie Otters, OHL (.565 RPI, +2.1 SRS, —) — Officially, only eight Otters have ever experienced the OHL post-season. How much anyone should be made of that when the newbies include Connor McDavid, André Burakovsky and goalie Oscar Dansk with their top-prospect statuses and world junior experience, and Connor Brown with his CHL-best 128 points?

Erie's playoff path, Saginaw in the first round and likely Sault Ste. Marie in the second, will involve a lot of travel. Both could involve two sharp 19-year-old signed NHL draft picks, the Spirit's Jake Paterson and Matt Murray of the 'Hounds.

6. Val-d'Or Foreurs, QMJHL (.555 RPI, +1.5 SRS, —) — Might as well be out front and start dredging up memories of what happened to league scoring champion Anthony Mantha in the second round last spring. The now two-time 50-goal scorer was held to one measly apple over three games of the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada sweep, and the Foreurs' most competitive effort came in the Game 2 that he missed (5-4 loss vis-à-vis being outscored 17-2 in the other games). Sorry, but not sorry for bringing that up a year later.

Val-d'Or is a 99 per cent favourite to beat Acadie-Bathurst in the first round. Really.

7. Baie-Comeau Drakkar, QMJHL (.549 RPI, +1.2 SRS, —) — Question: does anyone see that the Q's trophy for the team that finishes first overall, the Jean-Rougeau Trophy, and wonder if it was named after the 1980s wrestling tag team? Me neither. Baie-Comeau begins the playoffs with a mismatch vs. coach Éric Veilleux's old Shawinigan team. Barring any reseed-inducing upsets, it could have a matchup of colourful coaches against Benoît Groulx-helmed Gatineau in the quarter-final and again in the semi with Serge Beausoleil and Rimouski. Meantime, with 99 points in the standings and a league-low 167 goals against, this is a formidable first seed going into the playoffs.

8. Victoria Royals, WHL (.546 RPI, +0.8 SRS, —) — The Royals, if you're one of those anal-retentives who pores over the standings and subtracts the shootout losses from the goals-against column, tied with Kelowna and Edmonton with only 178 allowed. That sets up a counter-intuitive question for a franchise that has yet to win a playoff round as it goes up against seasoned Spokane: will it occupy the Chiefs' zone enough? Spokane's Mitch Holmberg finished with almost as many goals as Royals leading scorer Brandon Magee had points. Of course, of late it seems that if a team can contain Holmberg, it's pretty much contained Spokane. Sophomore Joe Hicketts will be looking to pump up his draft status now that the playoffs are here.

9. Drummondville Voltigeurs, QMJHL (.543 RPI, +0.9 SRS, +2) — Fittingly, the second highest-ranked team from the eastern league was also the second-stringest. Thanks to 18-year-old goalie Louis-Philip Guindon fashioning a 2.44/.905 line across 56 games, Drummondville carved out a 90-point season. Moreover, its give-no-quarter game won public approval as it drew overflow crowds to four of its last 10 home games during a season when most franchises experienced an attendance decline. That's in keeping with the 'dream big dreams' philosophy; Voltigeurs president Eric Verrier still wants to bring a Memorial Cup tournament to town someday.

10. Seattle Thunderbirds, WHL (.542 RPI, +0.3 SRS, —) — The 'Birds, who had the CHL's highest strength of schedule by Rob Pettapiece's reckoning, might also be involved in the most powderkeg-ish first-round bout in its league. Seattle and Everett, first off, have never met, but Thunderbirds star defenceman Shea Theodore will also have to pick his spots against the Silvertips' much-discussed trapping tactics. It's also been a while since either of the state rivals have savoured second-round hockey.

Seattle's ranking owes a lot to its competition, with six WHL Western Conference teams in the top nationally. Still, it kept its head above water.

11. Rimouski Océanic, QMJHL (.541 RPI, +1.0 SRS, +1) — The Océanic, collectors of 97 points, do face some questions going into what might superficially look like a walkover waiting to happen vs. struggling Chicoutimi. Each of the division rivals took two wins in the other's building, and the Saguenéens' Julio Billia is a very wily young goalie. Plus there's the prospect of the tallest defence pair in major junior, 6-foot-7 Loic Leduc and (listed at) 6-6 Samuel Morin, playing on the wider Olympic surface in Chicoutimi for games 3 and 4. Forward Patrik Zdrahal is also doubtful for Friday's opener. Overall, an early push isn't the worst thing for a team that's been winning so easily over the last 6-7 weeks.

12. Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, QMJHL (.541 RPI, +0.9 SRS, -3) — B-B stays in the picture just barely after winning just four of its final 10. The Armada still has a lot going for it. Edmonton Oilers second-rounder Marc-Olivier Roy, who missed 29 regular-season games due to myriad maladies, has been an excellent point producer in his first two playoffs. Étienne Marcoux, as an overage goalie, should be able to perform on demand in the playoffs if only on the principle of, if not now, than when? Still, some are tagging the Moncton Wildcats-Armada series as an upset special due to B-B's sluggish second half.

The not as dynamic but still very distinguished dozen — 13. Gatineau Olympiques, QMJHL (.537, —); 14. Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, OHL (.536, +3); 15. Everett Silvertips, WHL (.535, +4); 16. Calgary Hitmen, WHL (.535, —); 17. Edmonton Oil Kings, WHL (.534, +1); 18. Québec Remparts, QMJHL (.533, -3); 19. Spokane Chiefs, WHL (.531, -5); 20. Halifax Mooseheads, QMJHL (.524, —); 21. Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, QMJHL (.520, —); 22. Medicine Hat Tigers, WHL (.511, —); 23. Owen Sound Attack, OHL (.509, +4); 24. Tri-City Americans, WHL (.508, +1).

Hot team — Everett Silvertips, up 4 (19th to 15th).

Cold team — Spokane Chiefs, down 5 (14th to 19th).

Nowhere to go but up — Saskatoon Blades (.417).

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. Simple Ranking System (SRS), a ranking which combines goal differential and strength of schedule, is used as a complement. All three CHL leagues are considered equivalent in quality.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.