My Spokane Chiefs ended their regular season last night with a 6-2 thrashing of the Kootenay Ice in front of a sellout crowd of 10,512 at the Spokane Arena. Spokane blanked Kootenay up in Cranbrook 2-0 on Friday night as well. The Chiefs ended their regular season on a winning note, taking 5 out of 6 games, and now will advance to a best of 7 series against newcomer to the league, the Everett Silvertips, who managed to snare first place in the first year in the league. Everett will also draw home ice advantage in the series as well. In the other series in the U.S. Divison, Tri-City (Wa.) will square off against Portland. Both series should be very interesting as each team in this divison have been succesful at winning games against each other. Lets go Chiefs!

Hey Puckman, this looks like a new thread, but I thought you already had one going for the Chiefs. Anyway, congrats to your team for making the WHL playoffs and good luck! If Calgary didn't already have the Flames, I'd probably follow the WHL more closely, since we have a team there too (the Hit Men), although they are in the 'eastern' half of the league, and Spokane is in a US-only division. It looks like the Hit Men made it to the playoffs as well. Looked at the standings and it was interesting to see the Medicine Hat Tigers have by far the highest number of goals of any team in the league, but don't have the best overall record.

Puckman: you should come over here, I'd like to catch one of those Everett Silvertip games, everyone tells me they are a lot of fun and that new Everett Arena is supposed to be great. Plus I'm getting tired of the Big Leaguers.
Everett Silvertips
I'm not sure what a Silvertip is supposed to be though.
Everett Event Center
Ive seen this from the outside, it is held up with suspension cables, so it looks like a suspension bridge.

[ March 14, 2004, 11:44 PM: Message edited by: CnSEA ]

Hey, Puckman, I noticed the new "Chiefs" thread, too. However, good luck to Spokane! Hopefully, Chad Klassen will continue his scoring ways (see, I know a little bit about the WHL wink )!

Cnsea: nice place you got there in Everett. How many people does the Center hold? From the inside it looks similiar to the Spokane Arena, except maybe not as vertical as our Arena, which is pretty steep, especially in th eupper concourse. This matchup should be a good one, as both teams were 4-4 this year, and rarely did the home team win.

Cattledog, indeed you do. Saw Klassen on tv the other night. Very good looking kid. Like his chin stubble. wink

I believe the Everett Events Center holds 8,300 for hockey. The Silvertips have been selling out their games and they've been a hot ticket up here. Everett also has a sports talk show (ex-KJR DJ, The Fish) and they've been hyping the team. I have switched my allegiance to the Silvertips since they are closer to Mount Vernon than the T-Birds.

Go 'Tips!

I was going to ask what a silvertip is, but anyone who has ever been to Alaska knows it's a nickname for a grizzly bear, though I didn't know Everett had a lot of them! Puckman, keep us posted (no surprise, the LA Times doesn't feature much on the WHL) and good luck to your Chiefs.

By the way, the logo for the Silvertips is great! Next time I'm in the Seattle area, I'll have to get a Silvertip sweater to add to my collection.

~Adam

[ March 15, 2004, 09:45 AM: Message edited by: Adam ]

Adam, will do. I will also endeavor to post going's on in the other divisions, but my first priority will be the U.S. Division.

I have spent a lot of time in Alaska and even lived there for a little while and never heard the term Silvertip, but I believe you.

Too bad I didn't know that there were so many gay hockey fans in Seattle. A bunch of us went down there to watch the Giants play a few weeks ago. We could have used a tour guide of the bars! Next time, I guess.

Vancouver is playing Kamloops in the first round of the playoffs this year after getting spanked by Kelowna in the first round last year. They have a pretty respectable record of 4-2-2 against the Blazers this year so it should be a good series!

Kelowna is just playing incredible hockey right now, and are the odds on favorites, I am sure to make it to the finals again. I don't think Spokane beat them once all year. We also had lots of problems with Kamloops. Vancouver we fared pretty well against.

Tonight the best of 7 series begins in Everett. This should be interesting, and I expect a Chief win, based on the fact that both teams have been quite successful on their opponents ice. Everett has been described as playing a "boring" brand of hockey. When they get the lead, they play rather cautious, and do alot of icing of the puck. Getting the first goal will be critical for Spokane, because each team that scored first has won. GO CHIEFS!!!

Thanks to a very questionable officiating call with 32 seconds left in regulation, the Chiefs lost to Everett 2-1 in overtime last night! The way I read it, with 32 seconds in reg. left a Silvertip tripped a Chief (no call) who fell into the Everett goaltender by complete accident, so the Ref. called a 2:00 penalty on the Chief!!!, which ultimately led to the overtime goal. I so hate it when officiating descides a game, esp. one as close and important as this. Game 2 is tonight again from Everett. I was a little surprised by the attendance which was listed at just over 5,000, in a building that seats over 8,000 for hockey, but in listening to much of the game on the radio, the fans there were way loud!! Just wait till the games get back to Spokane next week.!!! Lets go Chiefs.
In the other U.S. division series, TriCity beat Portland, 4-2 to take a 1-0 lead in their series.

[ March 20, 2004, 10:16 AM: Message edited by: puckman1 ]

I agree with you about hating when close games seem to be decided by the refs; they should swallow their whistles--except for egregious actions. Will the schedule of games in Spokane conflict with Gonzaga's run in the NCAA? Go Chiefs and go Portland!!

~Adam

Gonzaga's run is over Adam, so nope, no conflict, now I can concentrate my full attention to the Chiefs.

Well the Chiefs might be on the verge of having to get their golf clubs ready and soon, unless they stop playing stupid hockey. A critcal stupid defensive mistake which has dogged Spokane most of the year led to Everett getting the first goal, and the Silvertips went on to shut out the Chiefs 3-0, to take a 2-0 game lead in the series, which switches back to the semi-friendly confines of the Spokane Arena. It didn't help that Spokane had a key defensive player who was kicked out of this game and maybe more as the result of a scuff in the first game of the series against a Silvertip. I have heard Coach Conroy say so many times throughout the season the team is making critcal defensive mistakes, the kind you make early on in a season not late in the season or in playoffs. On Spokane's side, they can come back, as they were down 2-0 in games against Portland a few years back, and came back to win the series, so it's not over yet, but the Chiefs will have to play alot smarter hockey than this to have any hope of overhauling this upstart Everett team. In the other series, game 2, Tri-City is at Portland tonight. Tri-City leads 1-0 in games.

Just as I felt would happen did last night. The Chiefs spotted Everett with 3 soft goals in the first period, and went on to lose 4-3 in overtime. Everett now has a 3-0 game stranglehold in this series with game 4, and most likely the last game the Chiefs will play this season, tonight. I recall a question I had for probably the most knowledgeable sports anchor in Spokane a couple of months back, about what he thought was wrong with Spokane this year.
Basically he said any number of problems, and that the Chiefs would have a short playoff season this year. Which brings us to tonight. Yet another disappointing year for the Chiefs, and yet another early round exit for Spokane. Everett is playing quite well though, and I don't take anything away from the way they are playing.
In the other series, Tri-City has taken a 2-1 game lead over the Portland Winterhawks.

[ March 24, 2004, 08:17 AM: Message edited by: puckman1 ]

Sorry Puckman but...

GO SILVERTIPS!!!!

Puckman, sorry to hear your Chiefs' season may be coming to an end. A 3-0 deficit in any best-of-seven series, whether it be hockey or baseball, is almost insurmountable, yet there's still a chance for your team. But look on the bright side, now you can concentrate on cheering for my Flames!

There you go Marc!

Sorry that your boys may be playing their final game of the season tonight. From what the sports anchor you mention said (they would have a short playoff season,) it seems the Chiefs played beyond themselves this season just to make the playoffs. That's pretty impressive unto itself & provides the team something solid on which to build next season. And--very important--to this NHL fan, you're lucky--you're sure of having hockey games in your area next season!

Now go Portland!!

~Adam

Alas, just as I thought, this season is toast. Everett shut out the Chiefs 3-0 last night and swept the season. A miserable end to a generally miserable season for us.
In the other series Tri-City has taken a 3-1 lead in games after thrashing Portland 4-1 last night. It's beginning to look like a Tri-Shitty vs. Everett series which should be most interesting. all I can say to that is GO SILVERTIPS!!!!

Sorry to hear about your Chiefs, puckman -- I hope they do better next season.

Sorry to hear about the Chiefs loss, Puckman, but Congratulations to the Silvertips for their first ever postseason series victory! I hate the trash-cities team. I saw them play against the T-Birds a couple of times last year and they were a bunch of thugs. I hope the Silvertips maul and rip them to pieces.

And I love the Silvertips logo, especially the one with only the bear claw (alternate logo). I'm buying one of their caps. GO 'TIPS!

Tri-Shitty are truly a bunch of thugs. They play goon hockey and play it well. Generally the Ref's let them get away with alot. I would love nothing more than for Everett to send Dri-Shitty out to the golf course along with the Chiefs. wink

[ March 25, 2004, 01:03 PM: Message edited by: puckman1 ]

In northern WHL news, after stumbling the first game at home Vancouver got it's first ever franchise playoff win on Saturday, and have since gone on to take 2 games in Kamploops. They're now poised to take their first playoff series victory on Saturday night. Of couse they'll then move on to Kelowna - a tough tough opponent.

Well just like I had thought and hoped for, it will be a Tri-City vs. Everett series in the U.S. Division after all. as Tri-City eliminated Portland the other night to take that series 4-1 in games. Go Everett!!!!!!!

Portland's out??? That's too bad....

~Adam

Portland is out.

Yes! The FIRST YEAR Everett Silvertips advance to the WHL finals by defeating the Vancouver Giants 4-2. The Silvertips spotted the Giants a 2-1 lead then reeled off 4 in a row to advance to the finals against the defending champs, the Kelowna Rockets. Game one is Friday in Kelowna, BC. Go 'Tips!