Red, White and Blue Report: Down the stretch they come

We’re down to the final weekend and the U.S. Division is far from solved.

Heading into the final handful of games the Seattle Thunderbirds have a slim, one-point lead over the Everett Silvertips for both the U.S. Division lead and the Western Conference top spot. Everett has one game in hand but blew a giant opportunity to jump into the driver’s seat this past Sunday night.

Third and fourth place are also still in doubt as the Portland Winterhawks have walked down and passed the Tri City Americans which leaves us not knowing who is going to be playing whom when the WHL post season kicks off on March 24th.

Here’s the latest from the Red, White and Blue Division:

Mumps in Seattle?

Perhaps the biggest story entering the week broke Sunday evening and could have a big impact on the U.S. Division playoffs. Greg Drinnan reported on his Taking Note blog that a source from the Seattle area informed him that Thunderbirds star Mathew Barzal had been in isolation since taking ill on Friday night. The source said that the illness was most likely the mumps. Thunderbirds general manager Russ Farwell clarified the situation on Monday by saying “We are being careful but will not know for three days. We are treating it as mumps until we learn otherwise.”

The mumps have been breaking out throughout the WHL this year, with the Victoria Royals the latest club to be stricken. Barzal took warm ups on Friday before Seattle’s game at home against Everett. He also skated out for the pre-game introductions but as the national anthem began he abruptly skated off the ice. While their leading scorer did not return to the game, the Thunderbirds responded with a big 3-2 win over the Silvertips.

Barzal was a scratch the next night in Portland but once again the Thunderbirds didn’t miss a beat and took out the Winterhawks 6-3.

Seattle has dealt with a bevy of injuries the second half of the season and on 12 occasions haven’t been able to dress the minimum 18 skaters. In those games, they are a remarkable 11-1. That being said, the loss of Barzal for any long stretch of time could be problematic. The New York Islanders prospect has been spectacular this season with 79 points in 41 games.

Everett coughs one up

The Silvertips have to be kicking themselves after Sunday night’s loss to the Portland Wintherhawks. With a chance to cash in on one of their games in hand with Seattle, they built what appeared to be a solid 3-1 lead over the home-standing Winterhawks.

As the game clock wound down to 6:25 to go in the third period, Everett went to the power play with a chance to ice the game and jump back into first place. That’s when things started to unravel. Instead of converting on the power play, they gave up a short-handed goal to Caleb Jones which cut their lead to 3-2.

With 2:47 on the clock Cody Glass was left alone in front of the Everett net and he scored to tie the game. An overtime point would have been big for Everett but it wasn’t to be as Skyler McKenzie was able to poke home his team-leading 41st  goal with just 13 seconds left on the clock to give Portland an astonishing 4-3 win.

The loss left the Silvertips one point behind the Thunderbirds in the standings with four games to go but Everett’s margin of error got smaller. Everett has a tough test on Wednesday night as they travel up to Kelowna and if they lose that game, they will have to hope for a Seattle loss in one of their last three games this week.

Seattle is in Spokane on Wednesday before hosting Portland on Saturday and Vancouver on Sunday. After Kelowna, Everett goes to Victoria Friday, then home with the Royals on Saturday and will finish the season Sunday in Kennewick against the Tri-City Americans. It should be a fun finish.

The battle for third

While Everett recovers from Sunday’s loss, the Winterhawks may just use that as a springboard. The win jumped them over the Tri-City Americans for third place in the U.S. Division. Tri-City has been reeling a bit, losing the last four after previously ripping off a six-game win streak.

That has allowed Portland to catch the Americans and sets up a pivotal game on Tuesday night in Tri-City.

Glass tied the game Sunday for Portland and the 2017 NHL Draft eligible had a good week. He was named WHL Player of the Week after potting five goals and eight points over a four-game stretch. The timing is good for Glass and the Winterhawks as he had been in a bit of a goal-scoring slump over the last month.

The Americans continue to try and find a way to win without Michael Rasmussen in the lineup. The big center has not played since Feb. 1st and is out for the season. Tri-City is behind by a point but they have one game in hand. After Tuesday night’s head-to-head game with the Winterhawks, the Americans will have a home-and-home with Spokane starting on Friday in Kennewick before finishing up the season Sunday when they host Everett.

The Winterhawks will finish with a Saturday night tilt in Seattle and then a Sunday finale at home against Spokane. Tri-City has controll of their own fate but will have to find a way to pick up the big two points Tuesday night to hold onto that control.

Spokane down and out

For this first time in a decade, the WHL Playoffs won’t feature the Spokane Chiefs. The young Chiefs were eliminated from playoff contention last week and are now playing out the string. This is coming off three straight first round exits in the playoffs so it’s been a while since Chiefs’ fans have seen a long playoff run.

The 2005-2006 Chiefs were the last to miss the post season. That team was coached by Bill Peters and would rebound two seasons later to win the WHL title behind players like Mitch Wahl, Tyler Johnson and goalie Dustin Tokarski. Advancing to the Memorial Cup in Kitchener, the Chiefs would go 3-0 to capture the big trophy, which they of course, famously broke.