Hitmen at Giants tonight

Calgary is in Vancouver to tangle with the Giants tonight in the 2nd and final regular season meeting of this year's WHL conference-leader titans.

Is this the biggest game of the year in the WHL? The entire CHL? The players are downplaying it, but some people seem to think so. Even CHL prez Dave Branch weighed in on the game and it doesn't even involve teams in his own league, the OHL.

The game is being shown on Shaw.....should be a good one. The Hitmen's 6-3 win over the Giants in Calgary in January didn't quite live up to the advance billing but with the playoffs so close now and so much more on the line in terms of the standings, you have to think both teams are going to bring their A+ game tonight.

For Calgary, any chances they have of finishing #1 overall really do hinge on a win in this game. A loss and they might as well resign themselves to being #2. For the Giants, they can still finish #1 even if they lose tonight (they'd just need five more points than the Hitmen get in the remainder of the season) but anything other than a regulation win means they'll be giving up the head-to-head tiebreaker to the Hitmen should the teams finish tied in points and wins. Then there's the confidence and psychological edge either team could get from a big win over the other. How big would it be for Calgary heading into a WHL Final showdown with the Giants (if they both get that far) knowing they beat the Giants twice this year. Etc, etc. So this game is indeed key to both teams.