WHL Championship Series: Winnipeg Ice vs Seattle Thunderbirds

It has taken awhile but the stage is finally set in the battle for the Ed Chynoweth Cup.

The Winnipeg Ice had defeated the Saskatoon Blades in the third round of the playoffs with a clean 4-0 sweep ending that series back on May 3rd.

They had to wait until last night to find out who would win between the Seattle Thunderbirds and Kamloops Blazers as that series went to six games before the top team in the Western Conference (Seattle) advanced to the WHL Championship.

The games get underway here in Winnipeg with game 1 on Friday (buy tickets here) and game 2 on Saturday (buy tickets here) although worth noting they have moved the venue from Wayne Fleming Arena at the University of Manitoba to the downtown rink where the Jets/Moose place at Canada Life which has significantly greater capacity for fans.

One of the more interesting storylines for Jets fans is that 2022 1st rounder for Winnipeg Brad Lambert was assigned to Seattle after playing 14 games for the Moose in the AHL. He produced quite well on a very good Thunderbirds team scoring 17 goals while adding 21 assists for 38 points in 26 games. He has similarly produced in the playoffs with three goals and 17 assists for 20 points in 12 games.

Also current Moose defenceman and Jets draft pick Tyrel Bauer (2020 6th rounder) who just completed his first season as a pro was the captain of the Thunderbirds and spent four seasons in Seattle.

The top team in the Western Conference and the top team in the Eastern Conference only met one time this season back in mid January and as you might have expected it was a close contest with Seattle taking it 4-3 in OT over Winnipeg.

The schedule looks like this:

Game 1: May 12, 7:00 in Winnipeg
Game 2: May 13, 6:00 in Winnipeg
Game 3: May 16, 9:00 in Seattle
Game 4: May 17, 9:00 in Seattle
Game 5: May 19, 9:00 in Seattle
Game 6: May 21 in Winnipeg
Game 7: May 22 in Winnipeg

Worth noting that games three to seven will be broadcast on TSN.

The winner of this series will advance to the Memorial Cup which is to take place in Kamloops later this month.