It’s my Parting Shot for the third and final installment of The Fearless Predictor’s preview of the W-H-L’s Ed Chynoweth Cup playoff tournament, starting tonight…..
The one opening round series I have yet to touch on is the one that gets going here in Edmonton between the third place Oil Kings and the sixth place Saskatoon Blades in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final.
E-O-K had 20 more points in the standings than the Bridge City Bunch and were a plus-82 in goals for and against differential while the Blue and Gold were a minus-four. Head-to-head, the Blades won the first meeting at SaskTel Centre with a late game rally before Edmonton won the last three by a total score of 14-7.
In order to have a shot of taking this series to six games, let alone winning the series – to a man, Saskatoon has to come out from the opening whistle playing on their toes and with bravery and ferocity. That’s a lesson that has to be learned from last year when they were swept by Calgary. In Game 1 at the Saddledome, an early Bridge City Bunch power play chance turned disastrous when Tanner Howe hammered Brayden Klimpke into the end boards of the Blue and Gold’s end, passed the puck in front to Ethan Moore who scored. The shorthanded goal was something the Blades couldn’t recover from!
If something similar happens in this series, the Oil Kings will sweep. Beyond that, if Saskatoon plays inconsistently, like the team that went 18-20-6 in the middle 44 games of the season, they’ll win a game but be done in five. But, if they play like the team that started the season 9-3-0 in the first 12 games and finished the last 12 with a 7-4-1 mark, they’ll get to at least Game 6 – maybe 7!
Maybe even win, but I’m not counting on that!!
What T-F-P is counting on is the Memorial Cup-host Kelowna Rockets not winning the Western Conference title and counting on the Everett Silvertips showing the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy form in the playoffs and winning the Ed Chynoweth Cup in the final over the Prince Albert Raiders!
Let the games begin!!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!
