| HeraldNet - Snohomish County's online news source |
 THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010 1:36 pm |
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Sports 
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Silvertips in fight to the finish Everett is among three teams vying for the U.S. Division title and the top playoff seed as the regular season heads into its final weekend. EVERETT — After six long months, it’s all come down to three days.The Western Hockey League’s U.S. Division title, along with the Western Conference’s top seed to the playoffs, will be determined this weekend. Three teams remain in the hunt: the Everett Silvertips, Tri-City Americans and Spokane Chiefs. How it plays out is anyone’s guess, but it makes for a thrilling finish to the regular season. “Every night you have something to play for,” Tips captain Zack Dailey said. “It’s something in the back of your head to make you battle a little harder, make sure you play a little smarter. It’s pretty much just like playoffs, it’s life or death right now.” Here’s how things stand heading into the weekend: -- Tri-City sits in first place with 95 points. The Americans have two games remaining, a home-and-home set against Spokane. -- Everett is in second with 93 points. The Tips have three games remaining, home contests against Seattle and Chilliwack followed by Sunday’s trip to Spokane. -- Spokane is in third at 91 points. The Chiefs have those two games against Tri-City before finishing up at home versus the Tips. So not only is everything still left to play for, the teams will be duking it out with one another to settle it. “It shows you the strength of our division,” Everett coach Craig Hartsburg said. “We have three teams all within a couple points of each other and it shows you how competitive it is.” There’s a good chance some teams will finish tied. In the event of a two-way tie the first tiebreaker is total wins. If the teams are also tied in wins, the second tiebreaker is head-to-head results. Everett would likely lose the tiebreaker to Tri-City and win it against Spokane. Tri-City is on pace to finish with one more win than Everett should the teams finish tied. Everett and Spokane are on pace to finish with the same number of wins if they finish tied, but the Tips will win the head-to-head against the Chiefs, regardless of Sunday’s outcome. The wild card is points earned in the event of overtime or shootout losses, which would skew the final win totals. Then there’s the unlikely scenario that all three teams will finish tied for first. For that to happen Everett must beat Seattle and Chilliwack, Spokane must win both its games against Tri-City in overtime or a shootout, and the Chiefs must then beat Everett in regulation. In that scenario all three teams finish with 97 points. In a three-way tie the tiebreaker goes to the team with the most wins. However, in the above scenario all three teams finish with 46 victories. The second tiebreaker in a three-way tie is goal differential. Currently Tri-City is plus-79, Spokane plus-60 and Everett plus-51, meaning the Americans have a comfortable advantage there. But while the various possibilities have many observers dusting off their calculators and keeping their eyes glued to the league scoreboard, the Tips are more concerned with how they’re playing going into the playoffs rather than their ultimate seed. “Obviously we’d like to get the top seed, but there’s a big picture, too,” Hartsburg said. “Come next week we’re not going to be moping around about not getting first place, or celebrating and jumping off the wall about getting first place. “Our focus is on playing better,” Hartsburg added. “We didn’t play very good in Portland (a 3-0 loss Tuesday), and I thought we were just OK the four games before that. We won them all, but I don’t think we were consistent for 60 minutes. Whatever happens is going to happen, but you want to leave the weekend feeling you played good hockey and are ready for the playoffs.” Hartsburg specifically mentioned Everett’s two two lines, which have seen their production dip in recent weeks. The Tips were buoyed by the increased offense from the third line, which picked up the slack to help Everett maintain it’s winning ways. Now Hartsburg wants the top two lines to follow suit. “Our best players, their game has to rise,” Hartsburg said. “If you’re going to have success in the playoffs your best players have to be your best players. They’ve had a good year and they’ve all played solid, but I’d like to see them all raise their game to another level.” And the reward may just be hanging another banner at Comcast Arena. Injury update Everett defensemen Radko Gudas and Alex Theriau are expected to be game-day decisions for tonight’s encounter with Seattle. Both Gudas and Theriau picked up minor injuries Tuesday in Portland. On the plus side, defenseman Curtis Kulchar practiced at full speed Thursday and is expected to be available tonight. Kulchar has been out since Feb. 19 because of a knee injury. Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog |
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