Is it too soon to start discussing the wild-card race in the Western Hockey League?
Not if you’re the Seattle Thunderbirds or Prince George Cougars, who are now in a quest to keep in touch with the rest of the group in the Western Conference.
The Thunderbirds come into Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre tonight and Saturday eight points adrift of the eighth-place Tri-City Americans. It could be worse. The Cougars are 12 points behind the Americans.
Eight of the 10 Western Conference teams make the playoffs.
So, it will be an increasingly desperate Thunderbirds team (8-14-3) the Victoria Royals face in the two-game set on Blanshard.
Victoria, meanwhile has been on an opposite trajectory. The Royals have earned points in nine of the last 10 games. They were the third-best achieving team in the WHL in November by earning 75 per cent of the points on offer to them in the month and are now 8-2-1 in their last 11 games.
But head coach Dan Price sees much room for improvement, citing the last two games, as Victoria blew a 3-1 third-period lead in Spokane before losing 4-3 in overtime, and being outshot heavily in a 3-1 home victory over Vancouver on Wednesday.
“We need to play with more consistency,” said Price.
“Our pace has dropped at certain times — in the third period in Spokane and in the second period against Vancouver [in which Victoria was outshot 18-6]. We have to build to the kind of full 60-minute game that will be required in the playoffs.”
Also of sudden concern, following a penalty-free game in Spokane, was discipline. Victoria grimly held Vancouver’s high-end power play, which includes 2019 fourth-overall NHL draft pick Bowen Byram and 2020 NHL draft first-round projected Justin Sourdif, to 0-6 on Wednesday.
“Our penalty kill really pressured Vancouver’s top-end power play. And it’s often said your goaltender is your best penalty killer and that was true as Shane Farkas got a lot of whistles for us,” said Price.
First-star Farkas was outstanding Wednesday, shorthanded or otherwise. But with three games in four nights, Price said Farkas and Brock Gould will get a start each in the crease against Seattle, but did not say in which order.
“Shane and Brock have a great relationship,” said Price. “They compete hard and push each other to be better, but also support each other.”
Royals’ Sean Gulka and Kaid Oliver have missed three games, and captain Phillip Schultz is on national team assignment for Denmark at the IIHF Tier II world junior tournament in Belarus, making Victoria’s forward depth an issue. Defenceman Nolan Jones was forced to play forward for the second consecutive game and scored his first goal of the season Wednesday.
Price said Gulka will likely return tonight, while Oliver is day-to-day.
Meanwhile, 17-year-old Thunderbirds forward Payton Mount, from Victoria, returns to his hometown tonight with four goals and 14 points in 24 games. It will be sort of the opposite for Royals forward Graeme Bryks, the two-season Seattle forward, who was traded to Victoria just before the season began.
And the Royals won’t have to worry about Seattle captain Matthew Wedman, who scored 40 goals last season and was selected in the seventh round of the 2019 NHL draft by the Florida Panthers. The 20-year-old, who co-leads the Thunderbirds with six goals and 17 points in 19 games, was traded Thursday night to the Kelowna Rockets for three draft choices, including a first-rounder in 2023. The six-foot-three Wedman was the last player connected to the 2017 team that won Seattle’s only WHL championship in the 43-year history of the franchise.
Seattle defenceman Cade McNelly begins a five-game suspension tonight for a cross-checking major in the Thunderbirds’ previous game.
