It’s my Parting Shot for Part 2 of The Fearless Predictor’s preview of the W-H-L’s Ed Chynoweth Cup playoff tournament, which starts tomorrow…..

After picking all the favourites to win their Western Conference opening round sets in this space yesterday, today it’s a glance at the Eastern best-of-seven quarter-finals – except for the Saskatoon Blades battle with the Edmonton Oil Kings!

I’ll start with second place Medicine Hat against seventh place Regina. It’s the defending league champion Tigers against the Pats, back in the post-season for the first time when Connor Bedard was in their lineup three years ago. Medicine Hat 49 more standings points than Regina. The Bengals had a plus-140 goals for and against differential compared to the minus-55 for the Regiment. The Tigers won all four head-to-head meetings, including the last two earlier this month by a total score of 17-2! The Pats might win one game, but that’s it!

The best series will be T-F-P’s only pick of a team advancing with an inferior regular season record as fifth place Brandon collides with Calgary. There isn’t a lot to choose here. The Hitmen captured home-ice advantage by three points over the Wheat Kings, yet in their four head-to-head meetings, the road team won every game! Calgary had a plus-27 goals for and against differential while Brandon was a plus-28. The Hitmen will be dangerous in the league – next season. This time, it’ll be the Wheaties prevailing in seven tough games!

Yes, I intentionally delayed looking at the series between first place Prince Albert and eighth place Red Deer to get the blood pressure of Raiders’ fans rising, them anticipating that I will say bad stuff about their team. However, I can’t do that in all good conscience. G-M Curtis Hunt built a strong core and added pieces to go all in for a long run. I told Ryan McDonald that, if I had a vote, he would be my choice for W-H-L Coach-of-the-Year. P-A was plus-145 in goals for and against differential while the Rebels were a minus-68. Now, a of Red Deer optimists and Prince Albert pessimists are pointing to the two Rebels wins over the Raiders five days apart earlier this month as a harbinger of a potential massive upset – uh, uh. This series is only going four games, maybe five, with P-A advancing easily!

Besides a deep dive into the Blades-Edmonton series tomorrow, I’ll predict the champion and runner-up!!

That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!