Tiebreakers May Decide Playoff Seeds

So what happens if the Western Hockey League West Division remains jammed at the top?

With no time for a playoff to determine a regular-season championship, the first WHL tiebreaker if two teams are involved is wins.

If two teams have the same number of wins after the 72-game regular season, the second tiebreaker is head-to-head results.

Spokane dominated the Kamloops Blazers and would be division champion if a Chiefs-Kamloops tie went to the second tiebreaker.

The first tie-breaker - wins - is not as favorable to the Chiefs. Their four ties could haunt them.

If the Chiefs and Blazers were to go unbeaten the rest of the way, they’d wind up tied for the championship with 104 points, but Kamloops would win it for playoff purposes based on wins - 51 to 50.

The Chiefs (41-18-4, 86 points) have nine games remaining, four at home, five on the road. Kamloops (41-19-2, 84 points) has 10 games left, eight on the road. Tri-City (39-20-2, 80 points) has to play seven of its last 11 on the road.

Chiefs honored

Four Chiefs - Mike Babcock, David Lemanowicz, Jan Hrdina and Darren Sinclair - are among the top vote-getters in the Best of the West poll released this week.

Coaches and management of the seven teams in the West Division participated in the Tri-City Herald’s eighth annual survey.

Babcock was named best coach, outpolling Marcel Comeau of the Kelowna Rockets. Babcock received 63 percent of the highest point total possible.

Sinclair, the Chiefs’ 19-year-old center and alternate captain, is the division’s top defensive player. The Chiefs nominee for WHL player of the year, Sinclair finished second to Hrdina for the West’s top faceoff man.

Lemanowicz, who was named WHL player of the week for the second straight week, was singled out as the West’s No. 1 goaltender, well ahead of Doug Bonner of Seattle.

Tim Speltz, Greg Leeb, Trent Whitfield and Sean Gillam wound up in second place in respective specialties.

In the closest vote in any category, Speltz was runner-up for the division’s best executive. Tri-City’s Bob Brown was first with 54.5 percent. Speltz received 54.2 percent.

Leeb finished second to Matt Van Horlick of the Prince George Cougars for Most Irritating Player, an irritating player defined by Degerman as a “trash-talking, bothersome agitator.”

Gillam - second in the division’s Defensive Defenseman vote to Nolan Baumgartner of Kamloops - also finished ninth in the Most Valuable Player balloting won by Hnat Domenichelli of Kamloops.

Whitfield, No. 2 in the most under-rated player category, is the 10th-best offensive player in the West Division according to the poll.

Club representatives could not vote for members of their own teams. The poll is coordinated by the Herald’s hockey writer, Eric Degerman.

, DataTimes