Dream Match-Up

r Post season playoff clashes between the Kelowna Rockets and Vancouver Giants have happened before.

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r But, none of those prior encounters held the promise of what awaits as the Provincial rivals open the best-of-seven Western Conference Final series, Saturday at Pacific Coliseum.

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r Simply, the magnitude of what’s at stake should make that conclusion a slam dunk. The series winner will advance to the WHL Finals where a birth in the 2009 Memorial Cup looms.

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r When you talk about a Kelowna-Vancouver match-up, you’re talking about two of league’s top six teams based on regular season action. To get here, the Giants had to knock off the defending Memorial Cup Champion, Spokane Chiefs, while the Rockets won four straight after dropping the first two games of their semi-final series vs. Tri-City.

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r To this point, the clubs have won 120 games between them. However, the next 4 wins will be the toughest and the four after that…well, let’s go over that bridge when we get to it.

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r Of course, you can compare the components of each team’s roster and break down the series that way. Up front, the Giants have the league’s leading scorer, Casey Pierro-Zabotel and the gritty, but fast and talented, Evander Kane, who scored 48 goals in just 61 regular season games.

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r Meanwhile, Kelowna’s Jamie Benn leads all playoff scorers coming in with 23 points in 10 games. And, with the likes of Colin Long, Cody Almond (3^rd in playoff scoring with 17 points), Mikael Backlund backing him, the Rockets boast abundant fire power.

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r On the blueline, respective stars Tyler Myers and Jonathan Blum will be fun to watch.

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r But, the coaches will tell you that the team that plays the most in the opposition’s zone will win the series – unless, either Tyson Sexsmith or Mark Guggenberger steals the series for their team. And, in this regard, precise execution of the game plan will be critical.

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r From a Kelowna perspective, the hectic pace of the Vancouver fore-check will pose a huge challenge. At the same time, Spokane was effective in battering the Giants’ defense physically in extending their semi-final series to seven games, which the Giants’ won with a 1-0 victory at home on Tuesday.

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r A check of the stats would indicate that Kelowna might prefer a high-scoring, wide open series having scored 44 goals (in 10 games) thus far in the post season to Vancouver’s 38 (in 11 games). The teams’ power play performances are comparable, both clicking at around 23%. Penalty-killing wise, the Giants at .878 are much better than Kelowna’s .796.

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r In the end, it will be interesting to see how the Rockets’ react if they find themselves in a succession of 1-0 or 2-1 games. Were that to happen, the performances of both Sexsmith and Guggenberger would be magnified.

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r Sexsmith will enter action sporting a 1.48 GAA and .939 save percentage and a Memorial Cup ring. At the same time, Guggenberger (2.31 GAA and .905 save percentage) has been on a mission in the playoffs and just out-duelled the more celebrated Chet Pickard of Tri-City.

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r Game two of the set goes Sunday in Vancouver before games three (Tuesday) and four (Thursday) are played next week at Prospera Place.

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r Game on!

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