Apr. 12—The Spokane Chiefs dispatched the Vancouver Giants in five games in the first round of the Western Hockey League Western Conference playoffs, reaching the second round for the first time since 2019.
They closed out that series on April 5 with a 9-4 win, with captain Berkly Catton, Andrew Cristall and Shea Van Olm combining for seven goals and 11 assists. The Chiefs have had a full week to practice and rest for the next round, a best-of-seven matchup against the Victoria Royals, which starts Sunday at the Arena at 6:05 p.m.
This time of year every player has a few bumps and bruises, so the team has enjoyed a few days of rest and rehabilitation. But there's the age-old debate of whether the time off helps or hurts momentum.
"It can work both ways for you. It all depends how you handle it," Chiefs coach Brad Lauer said at practice on Wednesday. "We're getting ready for Sunday and making sure we're ready to go."
"We got a lot of time off," Cristall said. "We had a chance to decompress after the big win we had, and now it's just kind of flip the script and on to a new opponent, another round."
The time off between series and new opponent provide a change of pace for the young players, who have been playing two or three games a week for six months.
"I think there's always a little bit of a reset," Lauer said. "It's going to be a different team we're playing, even though there are some similarities between the two clubs.
"But I think it's a little bit of a reset just to pause and kind of shut your brain down a little bit. Just take a rest for a bit. Now it's about getting back and getting ready to get going again."
"I think a big thing we've been preaching is having a short memory, and, you know, what's behind us is behind us," Van Olm said. "Just try to stay in the moment as much as we can."
As with Vancouver, the Chiefs (45-20-1-2) had good success in the regular season against Victoria (40-17-4-7), the B.C. Division champion. The Chiefs went 3-1 against the Royals, splitting a pair of games at the Arena on Jan. 31 and Feb. 8 — a 5-1 win and 5-4 overtime loss — and sweeping two games in Victoria on back-to-back nights March 7 and 8 — a 9-2 drubbing and a 2-1 shootout win.
The Royals were third in the conference in goals for and goals against, behind only Spokane and Everett in both categories. Their power-play unit was ranked second in the conference at 28.6%, just behind the Chiefs at 28.9%.
If there's a weakness to exploit, it might be on the penalty kill, where the Royals were just 10th in the conference at 73%.
"We know how good of a team they are," Catton said. "Lots of our games were pretty tight. They're a really good team, and they're kind of built similar to us, with fast, skilled players. So I think it's gonna be a good matchup and a lot of fun."
Lauer thinks the difference in the series could be the Chiefs' "team game" and depth.
"We've got to have everybody on top. We're playing five games in seven nights," he said. "It's going to be nutrition. It's going to be making sure we do the right things, our team game — but our depth of our team has to be ready. We're going to need all four lines, all seven defensemen, going and making sure that we're all doing the right things."
Still, Lauer knows at this time of year a team needs its best players to come up big.
That means Catton (third in points in 2024-25), Cristall (first in points) and Van Olm (first in goals) will need to find way despite Victoria's main objective in shutting down the prolific trio.
"They're smart players. ...
