T-Birds seek higher gear against Tri-City

The Thunderbirds and Tri-City Americans have become so familiar with each other in the postseason that an April trip to Kennewick can be penciled into T-Birds coach Rob Sumner's schedule months in advance.

For the third time in four years, the T-Birds and Americans will meet in the Western Hockey League Western Conference playoffs, beginning Friday at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.

But this isn't the same Tri-City team that fell in six games last year and five games in the 2005 playoffs.

The Ams found a groove this season and earned the top record in the WHL at 52-16-2-2 while scoring more goals than any team in the league. They had four players in the top 20 in the league in scoring, including Colton Yellow Horn third and early season addition Jason Reese 12th.

"They led the league in points this year so you have to have a healthy amount of respect for that," T-Birds defenseman Thomas Hickey said. "You can't give them too much credit though because the postseason is a new season. We're not really concerned with what happened in the regular season."

Yellow Horn has proven himself a prolific scorer in his WHL career, with 148 goals and 335 points in the past four years. Containing him was a key for the T-Birds in their first-round win over the Ams last season, holding him to three goals in the series.

"He just knows where to be on the ice," Seattle defenseman Scott Jackson said. "It always finds a way on his stick, then in the net, so we have to know where he is at all times."

In nine regular-season games against the T-Birds this year, Yellow Horn tallied a team-best nine goals and five assists. The playoffs have been no different. He had eight points in a first-round, four-game sweep of the Kamloops Blazers.

"He's got great skill and a great release, but he also thinks one step ahead of everybody," Sumner said. "I don't know if you're ever going to shut a guy like him down, but you need to limit him."

While Yellow Horn, Reese and company put a lot on the T-Birds' defensive plate, Seattle has stepped up its offensive game in the playoffs. Although they didn't blow the doors off the Kelowna Rockets while scoring 24 goals in their seven-game series, they led the league by scoring on the power play at greater than a 30 percent clip.

"It was just a lot of confidence. When pucks go in the net you just stick to the same thing," Hickey said. "We were getting shots to the net and getting guys in front, so that helped a lot."

Known for their speed, the T-Birds got out on the break throughout the first-round series against a physical Kelowna squad. Tri-City plays a similar speed game and both teams have scored in bunches against each other in the regular season.

They each scored 32 goals in the series and each had two games with six or more goals. Similarly against Kelowna, Seattle scored six goals in Games 3 and 4 to jump-start its offense.

"When we were successful against Kelowna we really skated, we advanced pucks and we used our speed on the attacks," Sumner said. "We created scoring and momentum and sustained pressure in their end off of that style of play."

THUNDERBIRDS

AT AMERICANS

WHAT: WHL playoffs, second round

WHEN/WHERE: Friday, 7:05 p.m., Toyota Center, Kennewick

RADIO: KKNW-AM/1150

NOTES: Tri-City topped Kamloops 4-0 in the first round. ... This series is the third playoff meeting between the teams in the past four years. Seattle won both previous meetings. ... The Americans won the season series 5-4, with each team winning once in overtime. Tri-City LW Colton Yellow Horn was the series' top scorer with 14 points (9 G, 5 A). RW Greg Scott led the T-Birds with 12 points (7 G, 5 A). ... Tri-City G Chet Pickard went 46-12-2-2 in the regular season with a 2.32 GAA and .918 save percentage. For Seattle, Riku Helenius went 22-12-5-1 with a 2.42 GAA and .915 save percentage and Jacob DeSerres was 20-11-0-1 with a 2.28 GAA and .922 save percentage. Helenius started six of the seven first-round playoff games.

SERIES SCHEDULE

All games at 7:05 p.m.

Game 1: at Tri-City, Friday

Game 2: at Tri-City, Saturday

Game 3: at Seattle, Tuesday

Game 4: at Seattle, Wednesday

*Game 5: at Tri-City, April 11

*Game 6: at Seattle, April 12

*Game 7: at Tri-City, April 15

*If necessary