The playoffs are always a sprint, not a marathon, but the first ten days were more like a 60 yard dash.
It took just ten days to play two rounds (both best-of-three) in the USHL playoffs, including the 24 hour series between Tri-City and Omaha. There was less than 24 hours from the start of game one until the finish of game two.
Now it gets a little more intense. The rest of the way, the league shifts to best-of-five series, starting with the conference finals that begin Friday night.
And what a series it should be in each conference. The #1 and #2 seeds meet in the West, while #3 and #5 battle in the east - but this is not a surprise. The East was that close most of the season, to the point nothing can truly be considered an upset.
WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: #1 Tri-City (45-11-3-1) vs #2 Sioux City (41-16-4-1)
WHY TRI-CITY WILL WIN: The Storm broke so many team records and USHL Tier I records this year, it barely fits on a shirt. Actaully, it’s been proven it does, but order a large size just to be sure. The goaltending tandem of Arsenii Sergeev and Sebastien Wraneschitz is second to none. Including overtime, Tri-City won 6 of 9 games against Sioux City this year. In reality, nobody had a good record against the Storm, Tri-City was that dominant.
WHY SIOUX CITY WILL WIN: Lost in the talk about Tri-City’s remarkable season is the fact that Sioux City tied a Tier I era team record with 41 wins. The Muskies ended the year on an 8-2-0-0 run - but then again, Tri-City finished 7-1-1-1. Sioux City had the second fewest goals against with 169…but Tri-City had the fewest at 138. On paper, it seems like these are the top two teams in many ways.
EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: #3 Muskegon (33-23-3-3) vs #5 Madison (30-29-3-0)
WHY MUSKEGON WILL WIN: The Lumberjacks scored 256 goals in the regular season, just four less than league-leading Tri-City. After a slow start to the season, Muskegon claimed throughout the season, although a 5-5-0-0 record in their last 10 entering the playoffs left questions in some minds. Those were erased in a sweep of Cedar Rapids and an impressive victory over Dubuque in round two.
WHY MADISON WILL WIN: It doesn’t show up on paper. The team was one game above .500, they scored 233 goals but also gave up 233, they only finished 3 points ahead of the seventh place team - a team that missed the playoffs. But the game is not played on paper. Madison has had an intangible quality all season, they seem to rise to the big games, and they’ve had some impressive comebacks. When it comes to the “it” factor - the intangibles that can’t be quantified, that’s where the Capitols seem to shine.
PREDICTIONS: This one is the hardest series to call yet. In the past, I’ve had good luck predicting based on the first really key test of the year, how does a team do? At least in the first key test I see. A few games in, both Sioux City and Madison seemed to have that particular intangible - it sounds ridiculous, but in the past, that has been the most reliable resource I have to predict a champion. A month in, I said Sioux City vs Madison, so I better stick with it. Take the upsets, but it’s going to be close - Sioux City in 5, Madison in 5.
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