Monday notes

Today was supposed to be the morning after the regular season ended....but thanks to some bad pizza and Edmonton's inability to get a point from Red Deer in two tries, there's still three games left to play this year.

Kelowna and Spokane will tangle tonight in Spokane....if Kelowna wins, they get #3 in the West and that race is over. If Spokane wins, then tomorrow night's game against Tri-City has meaning; if Spokane were to win that one too, then they would get #3.

I see some people have been saying the Chiefs need to win tonight in regulation - ie, if Kelowna gets a single point tonight, then they clinch #3. That is not true. Kelowna getting one point tonight means the best the Chiefs can do is tie the Rockets, but remember - first tiebreaker is wins. Two wins for the Chiefs would give them 47 on the season, while a Rockets OT/SO loss tonight might get them a point but it will leave them with only 46 wins. So, the Chiefs would win the tiebreaker between the two teams in that case.

The third game will be tomorrow night in Prince Albert, where for only the 4th time in WHL history (and first time in 19 years), two teams will play a one-game tiebreaker to determine who makes the playoffs. Edmonton and Prince Albert finished tied for the last spot in the East.....Edmonton needed only one point from their two games with Red Deer on the weekend in order to clinch the spot, but they lost both games to the Rebels in regulation.

Should the Oil Kings also lose the tiebreak game....what a heartbreaker that will be for them, to be so close to making the playoffs but fail to close the deal three times....

The tiebreaker will be played as a playoff game - ie, 20 minute sudden death overtime periods should they be tied after 60 minutes, etc. Prince Albert gets to host the game because they finished with more wins than the Oil Kings. The winner of the game gets to get on the bus and drive to Calgary, where they'll open the playoffs against the Hitmen on Thursday.

Anyway, five of the first round playoff matchups are set in stone, and a 6th one is at least half-set, because Calgary plays either Edmonton or Prince Albert. I have some previews coming for each of the decided series, which will be posted a bit later today.