It’s my Parting Shot for Part 1 of a two-part review of the opening round and preview, with winner picks, for the second round of the W-H-L Playoffs…..
Today will be the review and a look at three of the four Conference semi-finals with a deep dive look into the Blades and Raiders series tomorrow!
By way of review, The Fearless Predictor had six of the eight first round series winners picked correctly. I totally didn’t see Calgary sweeping aside Brandon – I had the Wheat Kings prevailing in seven games – and, I’ll freely admit that the Saskatoon Blades shocked me, as well as most other so-called experts, by eliminating Edmonton in seven games. I felt that if the Bridge City Bunch could win twice against the Oil Kings, it would be a success! Every other series I picked the correct winner and was off by one game in how long they would go, saying the series would go one game longer than it actually did!
On to Round 2 where three of the four series are intra-division sets and, somewhat decent travel as a result.
The one exception to that is first place Everett from the U-S Division tangling with Memorial Cup host and fourth seed Kelowna. Both are coming off four-game sweeps in the opening round. The Silvertips won all four head-to-head meetings during the regular-season, one in overtime and only the last one happened after the January 10th trade deadline – meaning the rosters were set for the rest of the season. The Rockets are trending in the right direction heading to the end of May, but I have Everett winning everything, so I’m going with the ‘Tips in six games!
The other Western semi is expansion Penticton against Prince George. That’s still nine hours of travel one way! The Vees won five of the six head-to-head match-ups with the Cougars winning the last tilt in overtime. I have a personal preference, based on my one viewing of each team, hence I’m picking P-G in six games!
The last look today is at the all-Alberta match-up between second seed and defending champion Medicine Hat against fourth seed Calgary. The young Hitmen continue to surprise, as evidenced by taking out a good Brandon team in four straight. The Tigers got some decent resistance from the up-and-coming Pats before taking out Regina in five games. Medicine Hat won seven of eight games in the regular-season series – four of them by only one goal and three of those in either overtime or a shootout. Calgary has an edge in goal that might allow them to sneak a couple of games out, but it will be the Tigers in six!
Get ready P-A fans for my take tomorrow!!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!
