One year after last season’s unpredictable and exciting second-round playoff series, the Tri-City Americans and Kelowna Rockets will once again lock horns.
The two teams will renew hostilities when the series opens with Games 1 and 2 on Friday and Saturday in Kennewick, Wash., located in the southeast corner of the state. Respect was the underlying theme in advance of the series and it’s clear neither team is taking its opponent lightly.
"If you’re playing at this time of the year then you’re a good hockey team – we know that because it’s a long road to get here," Americans head coach Jim Hiller said.
It’s hardly surprising Tri-City is playing at this time of year. The same can’t be said of the defending league champion Rockets.
After being ravaged by graduations following last year’s championship run, Kelowna, like most teams facing a major roster turnover, wasn’t expected to make much noise in the playoffs. But all it did was eliminate the No. 3 ranked Everett Silvertips, a team that captured 97 points, the same amount as Tri-City.
Much of the talk heading into the playoffs has surrounded three teams from the Western Conference’s U.S. Division, the Americans, Silvertips and Spokane Chiefs. Surprisingly, Spokane and Everett did not make it past the first round, and now the Rockets are emerging as a threat.
No less than seven players returned to Kelowna this season after playing integral parts in last year’s championship season. And those players, with their playoff knowledge, says Rockets head coach Ryan Huska, paid dividends in the Rockets’ epic first-round win over the Silvertips.
"The experience, I think, kind of separated us from Everett at the end of the day," he said. "Our guys understand how hard you have to work and how hard you have to compete in order to win a series."
Tri-City learned those lessons in its series with the Chilliwack Bruins. As the top-ranked team in the Western Conference, the Americans were expected to win the series, but victory didn’t come easily. The Bruins pushed the favoured Americans to six games before Tri-City punched its ticket for the second round.
The playoff series win brought little significance to Hiller, who is in his first year as bench boss in Tri-City after serving as Chilliwack’s head coach the past three seasons.
"When you coach you want to win, it doesn’t really matter who you’re playing," Hiller explained. "We played the Bruins 10 times this year so I kind of got over that Chilliwack story."
There are several noticeable differences from last year’s series. Although Tri-City will enjoy home ice advantage once again, it will do so without a consensus No. 1 goaltender.
There was little debate over which goalie would claim the crease for the Americans a year ago with all-world goaltender Chet Pickard at their disposal. This season, Tri-City platooned Drew Owsley and Russian Alexander Pechurskiy since his arrival after Christmas. Owsley started each game against the Bruins, but is not a lock against the Rockets.
"That’s a good question, but it’s certainly not one I’ll answer at this point," Hiller said on Wednesday. "We feel comfortable with whoever we go with."
Mark Guggenberger returned to the Rockets’ crease after watching the first two games of the Everett series from the bench. Last year’s starting goaltender took over the reigns in favour of Adam Brown early in Game 3 and was the difference from there on out.
"He kind of took the ball and ran with it the rest of the way and he was by far our best player on the ice in Game 7," Huska said.
Guggenberger will be familiar with many of the Americans players from last year’s series. Tri-City likes to use its speed and aggression in transition and Huska knows his starter will need to be on top of his game as this year’s Americans are notably improved.
"I think they will be better than last year simply because they’re a little bit older and they have a little bit of playoff experience under their belt and they’ve seen some success now," Huska said.
"We’re focused on our strengths and that’s speed and tenacity in the offensive zone and we’ll make sure we’re doing those things and Kelowna can deal with our strengths," Hiller said. "That’s what we’re putting our focus on."
The teams may be the same, but the unpredictable nature of a Tri-City-Kelowna playoff series remains. With a chance to advance to the Western Conference finals at stake, neither team will be looking past this series.
"You’re playing for a chance to win a championship," said Huska, "and I think you have to respect all of your opponents."
