Chiefs expect tough series with Silvertips
Bill Peters doesn’t expect to be done with the first round of the Western Hockey League playoffs by March 28.
The Spokane coach knows his Chiefs have a tough series ahead.
“No way do we expect it will be a four-game series,” Peters asserted after the Chiefs practiced Tuesday afternoon at the Arena.
The Chiefs and Silvertips open their best-of-7 Western Conference quarterfinal series this weekend at the Arena. With home-ice advantage, Spokane will host games Friday and Saturday, before traveling to play in Everett next Wednesday and March 28.
“We expect there to be high-level hockey with the opportunity for the series to go deep, perhaps feature some overtime,” Peters said. “It should be good hockey start to finish.”
It’s an interesting rematch of last year’s first round of the playoffs.
The Silvertips had just finished the season by earning the Scotty Munro Trophy for the best regular-season record, and Spokane was coming into the playoffs after a two-year postseason drought.
Heavily favored Everett won the series 4-2.
This season, Spokane was poised to finish as the league’s top team, but lost 2-1 on Saturday to the Tri-City Americans and closed the regular season with a 50-15-1-6 record and 107 points, second best in the league. Since the division winners were granted the top two seeds in conference play, the loss dropped the Chiefs to the third seed, setting up the rematch with sixth-seeded Everett (39-30-0-3).
“It’s outstanding,” Peters said of facing Everett in the first round. “We have home-ice advantage, which is important and something we need to take advantage of, and we are playing against a team we are familiar with. There is a comfort level in that – we know what they’re about and we need to go out and make sure our battle level exceeds theirs.”
Defenseman Trevor Glass, who joined Spokane in a trade-deadline deal for future draft picks, has the most playoff experience on the Chiefs’ roster.
The four-year veteran was previously with the Medicine Hat Tigers, who won the WHL championship last season with a team-leading plus-13 in the playoffs, and has played a total of 42 postseason games – including four in last year’s Memorial Cup.
“Everett is a good team,” Glass said. “We have to make sure that we play our own game and go in early and make our presence felt by playing strong and playing aggressive.
“You can’t let the other team get set up or get momentum, we create a lot more chances playing in their zone, so we’ll keep it simple and try and keep the puck out of our zone as much as we can.”