Post-season lacked drama for most part on
major junior circuit
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| Seattle C Jared Davidson is pursued by two Ice players. |
In the 15 best-of-seven series that made up the WHL’s post-season bracket, the team that posted the better record in the regular season won 14 of those sets. The only time a team with the weaker regular season record took a series came in the WHL final, when the Seattle Thunderbirds took out the Winnipeg Ice in five games.
That series wasn’t that much of an upset at all.
The Ice topped the WHL regular season standings with a 57-10-1 mark and was rated third in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The 57 wins and 115 standings points are new franchise records for the Ice.
The Thunderbirds topped the Western Conference and finished second overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 54-11-1-2 record. The U.S. Division champions were rated fourth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. Seattle’s 54 wins and standings points total of 111 points are new regular season club records.
Looking back, you could have made a case that the Thunderbirds should have been favoured over the Ice in the WHL Championship Series.
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| Connor Bedard almost singlehandedly won a playoff series. |
Still, the WHL Playoffs were all about the favourites in 2023. When the favourites got rolling, it often produced series that were short ones.
Out of the 15 series that made up the WHL’s post-season, seven of those series ended in sweeps and three of those sets concluded in five games. Only five out of the 15 series in the WHL Playoffs could be classified as long ones with three series ending in six games and just two series needing a series deciding Game 7 to reach a conclusion.
The Blades were involved in both series that needed a deciding Game 7 in the 2023 post-season. They were involved in the playoffs most compelling series taking on Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats in the first round.
Bedard did his best to singlehandedly win that set recording 10 goals, 10 assists and a plus-eight rating in the plus-minus department in those seven contests. The Pats won the first two games, the Blades claimed Games 3 to 5, Regina was victorious in Game 6 and Saskatoon closed things off with a 4-1 victory in Game 7.
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| Blades utility player Spencer Shugrue (#26) became “Mr. Game 7.” |
The Blades were involved with the best story when they took on the Red Deer Rebels in an Eastern Conference semifinal Series. The Rebels won the first three games of the set, and were up 2-0 after 20 minutes and 2-1 going into the third period of Game 4 at the Peavey Mart Centrium in Red Deer.
A three-goal surge in the third period lifted the Blades to a 4-2 victory. That marked the first of four straight wins for the Saskatoon side allowing the Blades to become the third team in WHL history to rally back and win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games of the set.
The Blades joined the 1996 Spokane Chiefs and the 2013 Kelowna Rockets as the only clubs in the history of the WHL to pull off that type of series comeback. Saskatoon took Game 7 of their series with the Rebels by a 5-2 score in front of an energized crowd of 9,489 spectators at the SaskTel Centre.
Blades utility player Spencer Shugrue earned the nickname of “Mr. Game 7.” He had a goal and an assist in the Game 7 win over the Pats and two tallies in the Game 7 win over the Rebels.
Fatigue took its toll on Shugrue and the Blades gutty stars in Trevor Wong, Egor Sidorov, Aidan De La Gorgendiere, Brandon Lisowsky and the rest of the Saskatoon roster. The Blades were swept away by the Ice in the Eastern Conference Championships Series.
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| Ice C Matthew Savoie (#93) corners past Blades C Trevor Wong. |
Following that Game 4 win, the Ice pulled out a gritty 5-2 victory in Game 5 in Winnipeg and rolled to an 8-2 victory in Game 6 in Moose Jaw.
The Thunderbirds claimed a physical six-game set in the Western Conference Championship Series against the Kamloops Blazers. The Blazers are the host squad for the CHL’s championship tournament – the Memorial Cup. With that noted, they went full out to try and get to that event as WHL champions.
While the WHL Championship Series ended in five games, it was tightly contested. The Ice won the first contest, and the Thunderbirds rolled off four straight wins from there to claim their second league title in team history.
Game 4 of that series proved to be pivotal. The two sides entered the third period locked in a 2-2 tie, and the Thunderbirds scored twice in third to pull out a 4-2 victory at the Accesso ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash.
Had the Ice won that contest, the series would have been tied 2-2 and was guaranteed to go six games. That could have produced a different ending to the WHL final.
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| Thomas Milic was the MVP of the WHL Playoffs. |
The Thunderbirds skated away with a 3-1 win to claim the Ed Chynoweth Cup before a sellout crowd of 6,202 spectators and Milic was named the MVP of the WHL Playoffs.
Overall, the WHL Playoffs were predictable in 2023, and that kind of dulled the interest in the post-season outside of the Blades two series wins in Game 7 and a couple of other spots here and there.
The WHL Playoffs in 2023 just happened to be one of those years where there was a lack of drama in the post-season.
Habscheid joins Vienna Capitals as head
coach
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| Marc Habscheid raises the Ed Chynoweth Cup in 2019. |
Habscheid, who is 60-years-old, was named the new head coach of the Vienna Capitals located in Vienna, Austria, of the ICE Hockey League in April shortly after the club’s former head coach in Dave Barr, who is 62-years-old, stepped down after two seasons. The Capitals posted a 24-17-7 record last season to finish sixth in the 13-team circuit.
Habscheid’s move to the Capitals came shortly after he resigned as head coach of Bemer Pioneers Vorarlberg located in Feldkirch, Austria. The Swift Current, Sask., product was the Pioneers first head coach and play on the same circuit as the Capitals. The Pioneers finished last on the 13-team circuit with an 11-34-3 mark.
Before heading over to Austria, Habscheid served as the head coach for the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders from November 1, 2014 to July 14, 2022. He guided the Raiders to their second WHL championship in team history in the 2018-19 campaign.
Habscheid was a long time star coach in the WHL having spent time behind the bench of the Kamloops Blazers, Kelowna Rockets and the Chilliwack Bruins/Victoria Royals franchise before joining the Raiders. He guided the Rockets to a WHL championship in the 2002-03 campaign and a Memorial Cup title in 2003-04.
In 18 seasons as a WHL head coach, Habscheid has coached in 1,166 regular season games posting 582 wins, 456 losses and 128 games where his team earned standings points in ties and extra time setbacks. His 582 victories places him fifth on the WHL’s all-time career regular season wins list.
During his time as a head coach in the WHL, Habscheid’s teams made the post-season on 14 occasions and he coached in 139 games in the WHL Playoffs posting 75 wins and 64 losses. His 75 career victories in the WHL Playoffs are the seventh most in the history of the circuit.
Before becoming a coach, Habscheid had a lengthy playing career as a skilled centre skating in 345 NHL regular season games spread over 11 seasons from 1981 to 1992 with the Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota North Stars, Detroit Red Wings and Calgary Flames where he recorded 72 goals and 91 assists.
He starred for the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades from 1979 to 1982 before concluding his time on the major junior circuit playing six games with the Kamloops Junior Oilers in the 1982-83 campaign. In 148 career regular season WHL contests, Habscheid recorded 107 goals and 169 assists for 276 points. He was a member of Canada’s first gold medal at world juniors in the 1981-82 campaign.
Remparts, Petes round out Memorial Cup
field, other notes
The field already included the host Kamloops Blazers and the WHL champion Seattle Thunderbirds for the annual event that crowns a CHL champion. On Sunday, the Remparts captured the QMJHL title and the Petes claimed the OHL crown. The Memorial Cup starts this coming Friday and runs through to Sunday, June 4 at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops.
The Remparts took the best-of-seven QMJHL final in six games against the Halifax Mooseheads. In Game 6 on Sunday, the Remparts trailed the Mooseheads 4-3 with less than three minutes remaining in the third period but rallied for a 5-4 victory before 10,300 spectators at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, N.S.
The Remparts finished first overall in the QMJHL regular season standings with a 53-12-1-2 record and were rated fifth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The Mooseheads finished second overall in the QMJHL regular season with a 50-11-4-3 mark and were rated seventh in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings.
The Knights finished fifth overall in the OHL regular season standings with a 45-21-2 mark, while the Petes were 10th overall with a 35-29-2-2 record.
The Memorial Cup opens on Friday with the host Blazers taking on the Remparts at 6 p.m. local time. The Thunderbirds face the Petes on Saturday at 3 p.m. local time. The championship final is slated for Sunday, June 4 at 4 p.m. local time.
- Last Thursday, Steve Konowalchuk stepped down as head coach of the Red Deer Rebels for family reasons. His family resides in Seattle, Wash. The 50-year-old Konowalchuk served as the Rebels head coach for the past two campaigns posting an 86-36-3-3 record in regular season action. The Rebels topped the WHL’s Central Division in 2022-23 with a 43-19-3-3 mark and were eliminated in the post-season in an Eastern Conference semifinal series by the Saskatoon Blades in seven games. Ryan Colville, who is 40-years-old, also resigned as a Rebels assistant coach last Thursday in order to look for a coaching position closer to his home in Cincinnati, Ohio.
- Last Friday, Kamloops Blazers left-winger Daylan Kuefler signed a three-year NHL entry-level contract with the New York Islanders. In 54 regular season games with the Blazers this season, Kuefler, who turned 21-years-old in February, recorded 31 goals, 30 assists and a plus-32 rating in the plus-minus category. Kuefler’s assists, points and plus-minus totals were all career highs.
- The AJHL’s Brooks Bandits are building a junior A dynasty. On Sunday, the AJHL champion Bandits blanked the SJHL champion Battlefords North Stars 4-0 in the championship game of the Centennial Cup tournament held in Portage la Prairie, Man. The Bandits allowed just four goals in six games. They have won the Centennial Cup the last three times it has been awarded and four times total in team history.
- On May 9, I had new content appear on the Howe Happenings blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a piece on Evan Johnson, who is the starting right guard with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders. Johnson likes giving back to the sport of football by coaching young players at the grassroots level of the game representing the Roughriders at community events. The piece on Johnson can be found by clicking right here. I also put together a photo roundup that shows the spring season at the Complex finally hitting high speed. That post can be found by clicking right here.
If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
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