The Western Hockey League’s second season started Thursday night, and the regular-season champions opened the playoffs with an eye-opening loss.
The Saskatoon Blades, who finished with a league-high 105 points, lost 4-3 to Prince Albert despite outshooting the Raiders 44-20.
In that first-versus-eighth matchup, Prince Albert had 38 fewer points (67) than Saskatoon and 19 fewer wins (51-31).
On Friday, the two teams will meet again, along with the league’s seven other series. That includes what should be the closest matchup of them all: Wenatchee versus Kelowna.
In Western Conference standings, Wenatchee finished fourth with 72 points, just one point ahead of fifth-place Kelowna.
The Wild will host Games 1 and 2 this Friday and Saturday, with the Rockets hosting Games 3 and 4 next Tuesday and Wednesday.
The two clubs met four times during the regular season, with each team winning twice.
Technically, this will be the fifth playoff series between the two franchises.
Realistically, though, it’s the first, as there are zero connections between today and the previous four playoff series that happened 18 to 22 years ago.
The Wild are formerly the Kootenay / Winnipeg Ice — a team that began life in Edmonton before relocating to Cranbrook, B.C., then to Winnipeg.
Last summer, though, the group that bought the Ice from the original owners – the Chynoweth family – and moved it from B.C. to Manitoba sold the club to David and Lisa White of Wenatchee.
The Whites were running a BCHL franchise of the same name, but jumped at the opportunity to join the WHL.
The last meeting between the Kootenay Ice and the Rockets was 2006, which Kelowna won 4-2.
In other news, it’s been a busy week for the WHL.
On Thursday, the league announced that it surpassed three million fans during the regular attendance — a first in the post-COVID era.
This past season’s attendance was listed at 3,076,922, up nearly 100,000 from the 2,913,512 fans in 2022-23.
- 2023-24: 3,076,922
- 2022-23: 2,913,512
- 2021-22: 2,397,588
- 2020-21: COVID bubble season
- 2019-20: 2,882,799
Overall, the average attendance at a WHL game was 4,114 fans – up from 3,895 in 2022-23 and 3,205 in 2021-22.
But in the decade prior to COVID, fan attendance averaged between 4,154 and 4,817 per game.
On Wednesday, the Everett Silvertips won what’s been called the Landon Dupont sweepstakes.
The WHL held its annual lottery for the bantam draft in May, and the consensus top pick is Dupont, a 14-year-old from Calgary who’s lighting up the Canadian Sport School Hockey League.
The 5-11 defenceman plays for Edge School’s under-18 prep team and has 19 goals and 62 points in 30 games — good for third in league scoring — despite his age gap.
The two players in front of him in CSSHL scoring were born in 2006, three years before Dupont was born in 2009.
“When we look at Landon as a player, what we see, and what really pops in this age group, is his skating and edge work,” said Taylor Green, the WHL’s manager of hockey operations.
“He’s so comfortable and able to beat guys on the blue-line, able to shimmy around when he’s exiting the defensive zone. He can really accelerate off his edges like we see so many of those elite defencemen do in today’s game.”
Six teams were eligible for Wednesday’s lottery, which Everett won. It will be the team’s first overall pick in the franchise’s 20-year history.
Prince Albert will pick second, followed by Tri-City, Kelowna, Edmonton and Calgary.
When Everett selects Dupont first overall, the teen will likely be granted exceptional status, though that hasn’t been announced.
Dupont turns 15 on May 28. Normally, 15-year-olds can only play five games during the regular season. However, given his skill level, he’ll join Connor Bedard as the only other WHL player to be granted exceptional status.
The Everett Herald reported that Silvertips plan on picking Dupont.
“We’ve had plenty of communication with (DuPont),” Silvertips CEO Zoran Rajcic said. “Mike (Fraser, Everett’s assistant general manager) and Dennis (Williams, the team’s outgoing general manager) have met with his family, and we believe Everett is a good landing spot for him for the next chapter of his hockey career.
“Mike and I will discuss it, but it’s a no-brainer. There’s still work to be done before that, he still has to get exceptional status. But from what I’ve heard from Mike and Dennis he’s a generational player.”