Breaking Down the Series

First up some pictures from the Awards Banquet Monday night. Thanks to Bobbi-Jo Van Leuken (Artistic Impressions/Colorama) for the photos.

Broncos Head Coach and G.M Dean Chynoweth works the purple shirt/tie combo.

Broncos Captain Myles Rumsey delivers the Captain's speech.

Myles Rumsey accepts one of his four awards.

Goaltender Kyle Moir accepts awards for Humanitarian Player of the Year and the Leadership and Maturity Award.

The Broncos and Pats open up the playoffs tomorrow night from the Brandt Center. Catch all the action on the Eagle 94.1 FM beginning with the Big Show at 6:30pm, the play-by-play with Ryan Switzer and myself at 7pm. Here's some quick series tidbits:

- The Broncos will open up the series at the Brandt Center seeking their first win in Regina since March 5th, 2005 - a span covering eight meetings.

-The two teams last met in the playoffs in the 92-93 season. The Broncos swept the best-of-seven.

- The Pats outscored the Broncos 32-22 in the eight game season series winning 6 the 8 meetings including the last four in a row. On average the Pats outshot the Broncos 33-27.

- The Pats powerplay scored 12 goals in the season series and operated at 22.2%. The Broncos powerplay accounted for 7 goals (5 came in one game) and clicked at a rate of 13%. The Broncos were also 0/22 on the pp against Regina in the last four games of the season series. It's quick to see why special teams will be so important in the playoff match-up.

- Linden Rowat sported a record of 5-2 against the Broncos while Kyle Moir was 1-4. His only win was a 9-0 shutout. The same game that saw the Broncos score five pp goals.

- The Pats scored 234 goals this season (10th best in the WHL), the Broncos scored 199 (17th best).

- The Broncos feature six players who scored 15 or more goals this season (Bortis, Smith, Nelson, Wiese, Rakos, and Schenderling), the Pats had seven players (K. Ross, Festerling, Saulities, Reich, Ofakuny, Eberle, McAngus) In contrast, the Broncos only had one 20-goal man (Schnderling), the Pats had five (K. Ross, Festerling, Ofukany, Eberle, McAngus).

- The Pats had 36 wins this season, 4 less than last year. The Broncos had 33 wins, 9 more than last year.

- The Pats were eliminated in seven games by the Saskatoon Blades last playoffs, the Broncos were swept by Medicine Hat.

- The Pats last made it to the 2nd round in the 97-98 season. They swept Moose Jaw before falling to Brandon in five games in the Conference semi-final. The Broncos last advanced to round two in the 2001-02 series when they beat Calgary in seven games. They then lost to Brandon in five.

More series details tomorrow. Still have lots of work to do before we leave this afternoon. I'll take a look at the other series and throw out some predictions.

Go Broncos.