The Kootenay ICE have advanced to their 3rd WHL Finals.
In 2000 they played against Spokane and 2002 against Red Deer. ICE won both in 6 games.
The West Final goes to game 4 tonight in Spokane with Portland leading 2 games to 1. The road team has won 2 of the 3 games. Last year they met in a 7 game 1st round matchup where the road team won all 7 games.
The winner of the West will have home ice advantage against the ICE in a series that should start May 6th and 7th.
In calls made to both home rinks it appears there should be no buildings conflicts for those 2 dates.
Games 3 and 4 should be May 10th & 11th in Cranbrook.
These are just guesses and the official schedule will be announced after the West Final.
Half of the teams going to the Memorial Cup are known as the host Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors are playing the Owen Sound Attack in the OHL Finals.
QMJHL has 3 teams remaining. Saint John Sea Dogs are in the Final and will meet the winner of the Quebec Remparts/Gatineau Olympiques series. Quebec leads 3 games to 1.
Saint John is 12-1 in the playoffs. Their goalie is former Wheat King/Thunderbird Jacob DeSerres.
ICE have won 11 games in a row and the WHL record in the playoffs is 12.
Calgary 09, Vancouver 06, Spokane 91, Swift Current 89 and Kamloops 84.
During the winning streak the ICE have trailed in games a combined 16 minutes and 12 seconds. In the last 3 games against Moose Jaw they never trailed. Against Saskatoon they trailed for 5:01 in game 4. In the Tigers series they trailed twice in the 3rd period of game 1 for a total of 11:11.
If the ICE were playing tonight they would have welcomed Steele Boomer and Drew Czerwonka back to the lineup, so both obviously will be ready for the Final. Brock Montgomery, who hasn't played in the last 2 rounds, will also be ready for the next series.
The WHL Bantam Draft is on Thursday. Since the ICE are still involved in the playoffs the radio station will not have extra reports during the day but we will have updates on every sportscast every hour. Director of Scouting Garnet Kazuik always gives us scouting reports on all the players selected and we usually contact most of the players selected.
The ICE have 10 picks in the first 7 rounds. Yes, even after the Cody Eakin trade the club still has that many picks in the early rounds. Last year they had 11 picks in the 1st 7 round and made no other selections.
ICE Picks - 1st, 3rd, 4th, Lethbridge 4th (Cason Machacek trade), 5th, Prince George 5th (Petr Senkerik trade), 6th, Brandon 6th (2010 Import pick trade), 7th, Everett 7th (2010 Bantam pick trade), 8th, 9th, 10th.
In the 2012 Bantam Draft the ICE have no 3rd round pick (Cody Eakin trade) and have no extra selections.