The Kelowna Rockets will be travelling south, not north, when the playoffs begin at month’s end.
On Tuesday night, Kelowna’s playoff position was cemented when the Vancouver Giants tripped up the Portland Winterhawks 3-2 in overtime.
The win pushed seventh-place Vancouver (27-31-5-3) to 62 points in Western Conference standings, six more than eighth-place Kelowna (26-36-4-0) at 56 points.
With just two games left, both against Vancouver this weekend, the Rockets are unable to catch the Giants. In turn, that means Kelowna will face first-place Seattle (53-10-1-2) in the first round, with Vancouver playing second-place Kamloops (48-12-4-2).
Elsewhere on Tuesday night, Seattle doubled up visiting Kamloops 6-3 and locked up first place overall in Western Conference standings. The next night, the two clubs met again, in Kamloops, with the Blazers winning 6-5 after blowing a 4-0 lead.
The Thunderbirds, who have two games left, have 109 points, seven more than Kamloops at 102 points.
The Tuesday game in Kent, Wash., was close until the T-Birds scored three times in the second, erasing a 2-1 deficit after the first period and taking a 4-2 lead heading into the third.
“I thought we got stronger as the game went on,” Seattle head coach Matt O’Dette said on the team’s webpage. “Which is kind of a trend for us. We’d like to be better earlier in the game, but a good hockey game. Two good teams going at it.”
The Blazers outshot Seattle 37-34 and were also 2-for-4 on the power play. Seattle was 1-for-3 with the extra man.
The next night, the Blazers roared out to a 4-0 lead, scoring four times in the first period before a sellout crowd of 5,659 — the largest crowd of the season. Notably, of the Blazers’ 33 home games this season, just 15 have been sellouts. Kamloops will host the 2023 Memorial Cup this spring.
In the second, the Thunderbirds found their footing, scoring early to make it 4-1, only to have Kamloops reply two minutes later at 6:32. Three minutes after that, though, the T-Birds scored shorthanded at 9:18 to make it 5-2 — the first of four straight goals by the visitors.
Thirty-one seconds later, at 9:49, it was 5-3. At 14:00, former Kelowna captain Colton Dach drew Seattle to within one when he scored. And just before the period expired, at 19:51, Jeremy Hanzel tied the game at 5-5.
In the third, Caedan Bankler netted the game-winner at 13:43, his 36th goal of the season.
The Blazers were 0-for-3 with the extra man while the T-Birds were 0-for-1.
Seattle and Kamloops met in last year’s conference championship, with the T-Birds winning the series 4-3.
Meanwhile, Kelowna and Seattle will meet in the first round for the second consecutive year. In the 2022 playoffs, the T-Birds ousted the Rockets 4-1, outscoring them 24-10, though the last two games went to overtime.
Seattle will host Games 1 and 2, on March 31 and April 1, respectively. Kelowna will host Games 3 and 4 on April 4-5.
In head-to-head games this season, Seattle went 4-0 against Kelowna. Their last meetings were Dec. 30 and 31, with the T-Birds winning 4-1 and 2-0.
After that date, though, the Rockets traded their former captain, Dach, to Seattle for forward Ty Hurley, defenceman Ethan Mittelsteadt and a trio of conditional draft picks.
However, the 6-foot-4 Dach has seen limited playing time with the T-Birds, having played just six games because of injuries. He did play in both games against Kamloops.
Kelowna will wrap up its regular-season schedule this weekend with a home-and-home set with Vancouver. The two-game set will start Friday night, 7:30 p.m., in Vancouver, then shift to Kelowna for Saturday night.