The Kootenay ICE are venturing into familiar territory and an unfamiliar situation as they’re headed to Medicine Hat for the start of the WHL’s Eastern Conference Final.
The ICE and Tigers met 6 times during the regular season with ICE winning the series with a 4-1-1 record. Two of the ICE wins came in the 4,006-seat Arena in Medicine Hat. But, for the ICE it’s their 1st appearance in the WHL’s Final Four since 2005 when they lost in the West Final to the Kelowna Rockets. Back then the ICE regularly went deep into the playoffs as they won the League titles in 2000 and 2002.
The teams’ have followed similar paths in this years post season as the ICE took out Moose Jaw in 6 games in the 1st round and then upset Saskatoon 4 straight in the 2nd round. The Tigers eliminated Bandon in 6 games in the 1st round and pulled off an upset of Red Deer in 5 games.
For the ICE it will be a 9 days between games as they took out the Blades on April 6th at the Cranbrook Rec-Plex. Assistant Coach Todd Johnson says there are mostly positives with a long break at this time of the season “We had a few guys who had some bumps and bruises, so it’s nice they can have a chance to get healthy and have a couple of days off. We’re not reading too much into the break, it’s going to be the guys preparing themselves and focusing themselves to be ready to go on Friday.”
One of the players who needed some healing was forward Drew Czerwonka who missed 3 games in the Moose Jaw series with a shoulder injury and feels stronger heading into the weekend “We have a few guys beaten up here so the break is allowing us to heal. We still have to practice hard and practice with a high tempo so we are ready for Medicine Hat. All the boys are working hard and we are ready to get going.”
The ICE are on a Franchise Record tying 7-game playoff winning streak and are coming off a series win over the CHL’s #2 ranked Saskatoon Blades. Forward Jesse Ismond says it also helps the confidence knowing they had success against the Tigers during the regular season “With Saskatoon series we didn’t have a good regular season series (0-4 record) but we have played well against Medicine Hat and it’s good to have going into the series. We know they’re a skilled team and if you give them time and space they’re going to execute.”
The game plan for the ICE will be similar to the previous rounds where they played highly skilled teams in the Warriors and Blades. Defenseman Luke Paulsen says it’s no secret who they have to try and shutdown in the series “We know quite a lot about them, we’ve played them a lot over the years. We know what they can do, they have a lot of scoring up front and if we can keep playing the way we’ve been playing we’ll be fine.” Ismond agrees “They’ve got some good skilled players in (Linden) Vey and (Emerson) Etem and we know we need be hard on those guys like we were with (Brayden) Schenn and (Curtis) Hamilton.”
Even tough the ICE and Tigers have developed a rivalry of the last few years the ICE have nothing but respect for the Medicine Hat organization. Czerwonka says they deserve to be where they are, “They have some highly skilled players and we will need to play physical.” Johnson had a chance to watch the Tigers in person as they beat the Rebels in game 5 on Saturday and says they were the better team “They’re a confident group and they all are playing very very well.”
It’ll be the 2nd series in a row that the ICE will have to start on the road as they’ll meet in a building that is loud and has lively boards which creates a wild atmosphere. Czerwonka says it’s a unique place to play “It’s crazy, their fans are pretty rowdy, it’s loud all the time. It’s a great environment to play in.” Ismond says it’s a great place to play “It’s intense, it’s fast, it’s everything the playoffs are about. It’s almost reckless in there at times.”
The ICE have won their last 4 road games in this years’ playoffs and Johnson says sometimes it’s a positive to start on the road “I find it’s easier. The pressure is on the home team as they have to win those 2 games or they lose home ice advantage. For us it’s going in there and trying to set the tone on how we want to play in the series.” Paulsen says they approach each game the same “We bring our work ethic every night and it doesn’t matter where we are playing right now. That’s a good thing right now and not having home ice advantage is not hurting us right now.”
Along with playing each other 6 times a year in the regular season, this will be the 3rd playoff meeting between the clubs in the last 4 years. In 2008 the ICE, without home ice advantage, won the series in 5 games including winning the 1st 2 games on the road. Last year the Tigers came back from a 0-2 series deficit and won the next 4 games to win the series. Both meetings happened in the 1st round. This time around the winner will advance to play Portland or Spokane in the WHL Finals. Familiar or unfamiliar there is no better place to be at this time of the season.