Rockets ride into WHL Western Conference semifinals with upset on their minds

The WHL’s Western Conference held its form in the first round of the playoffs, with the higher seed winning all four series. In the U.S., Seattle and Everett got mini-vacations after dominant sweeps, while Victoria and Kelowna have had much less time to recover from tough first-round matchups. Here are previews for the conference semifinals:

(1) Victoria Royals (50-16-3-3, 106 pts.) vs. (2) Kelowna Rockets (48-20-4-0, 100 pts.)

Season series: Victoria 5-2-1; Kelowna 3-5-0. First round: Victoria defeated Spokane 4-2; Kelowna defeated Kamloops 4-3. Prediction: Rockets in 6

The Royals surged past the defending WHL champions in the last month of the season to earn home-ice advantage for this series, but Victoria’s chances are perhaps looking a bit shaky due to the uncertain status of captain Joe Hicketts.

Hicketts, arguably the most valuable player in the Western Conference, would probably be in line to play 25-30 minutes a night in a series against the Rockets, but he hasn’t played since putting up three points in Game 1 of a tougher-than-expected six-game series against the Spokane Chiefs. Without him, they were able to take three of five from the Chiefs, but his absence will be much tougher to deal with against the deeper and more talented Rockets.

Without their captain, the Royals would look to veterans Ryan Gagnon and Chazz Reddekopp to do the heavy lifting against Kelowna. Things are also a little unsettled in goal for Victoria, with Coleman Vollrath and Griffen Outhouse each playing three games against Spokane and putting up just OK numbers. Forward Vladimir Bobylev, who had seven assists in five games in the first round, missed Game 6 due to injury and his status is also up in the air.

Fortunately for the Royals, they’re still deep on offence, led in the first round by Tyler Soy and Jack Walker (five goals and nine points each vs. Spokane).

The Rockets, meanwhile, endured a seven-game grind against Kamloops, winning the last in overtime to dispatch the upstart Blazer. Kelowna scored just 15 goals in the series, but got great goaltending from Michael Herringer (.930 save pct.), who was thought to be a question mark in the absence of injured starter Jackson Whistle.

While light-scoring Rodney Southam led Kelowna with four goals in the first round, most of the team’s other big names struggled to find the score sheet. Tyson Baillie, who led the team with 43 goals and 95 points in the regular season, had just three assists against Kamloops.

Still, even with Southam and Tomas Soustal scoring nearly half the team’s goals, the Rockets beat Kamloops. It stands to reason that Memorial Cup veterans like Baillie, Rourke Chartier and Justin Kirkland won’t be held down for another round.

The Royals have had a wonderful season, but with question marks like Hicketts and goaltending, Kelowna will have a good shot to get past Victoria in the second round for the second year in a row.

(1) Seattle Thunderbirds (45-23-4-0, 94 pts.) vs. (2) Everett Silvertips (38-26-5-3, 84 pts.)

Season series: Everett 6-2-1-1, Seattle 4-6-0-0. First round: Seattle defeated Prince George 4-0; Everett defeated Portland 4-0. Prediction: Thunderbirds in 7

This has, since the end of last season, been set up to be Seattle’s year in the U.S. Division. The Thunderbirds limped a bit through the middle of the season, but caught fire down the stretch, finishing 13-0-1 to win the division comfortably over the Silvertips.

Seattle carried the momentum over into the playoffs, sweeping past Prince George to set up a series against Everett, which put the nail in the coffin of Portland’s division reign with a surprisingly easy four-game sweep.

The T-Birds might look to be the big favourites here, but they had a ton of trouble scoring against the Tips in the regular season. In fact, Seattle scored just 14 times in 10 games against Everett, but won the last three meetings 1-0, 2-1 (shootout) and 2-0.

This one will probably come down to goaltending, as 'Tips starter Carter Hart appears to be healthy again after missing the first three games of the Portland series (which backup Mario Petit handled with ease). Hart started all 10 games against Seattle in the regular season and posted a 1.32 GAA and .951 save pct.

On the flip side, Seattle’s fortunes in the season series changed when over-ager Landon Bow came on board in midseason. In seven games against the Tips, Bow posted numbers of 1.89 and .931.

Unfortunately for the T-Birds, they have a bit of a Hicketts-type situation with forward Ryan Gropp, whose status is up in the air after suffering an injury late in the regular season. Gropp led Seattle with 10 points in 10 games against Everett, but rumours persist that he may not be available at all in this series.

Mathew Barzal makes Seattle go offensively, but he’s always been more of a set-up man than a goal-scorer. He had seven assists without a goal against Prince George, so the T-Birds will have to rely on Keegan Kolesar and Scott Eansor for goals, as well as depth guys like Alex True, Nolan Volcan and Cavin Leth, who had three goals against the Cougars. Defenceman Ethan Bear is also a big offensive threat on the power play from the blue line.

For Everett, offence always comes by committee. Remi Laurencelle scored 28 goals in the regular season to lead the team, but he struggled to find the net down the stretch. He rebounded with two goals against Portland, and captain Dawson Leedahl returned from injury to have a big series against the Winterhawks with three goals and five points.

Silvertips coach Kevin Constantine knows his team’s offensive shortcomings, and has done a tremendous job with a club featuring just one NHL draft pick (defenceman Noah Juulsen). Their almost-robotic structure won’t change, so it will come down to how determined Seattle will be to maintain its own structure and grind out enough goals to win.

Even without Gropp, the T-Birds may have too much talent across the board for the Tips to handle, but Everett has the tools to make this thing go the distance.