Midnight Chimed a Long Time Ago for Cinderella

The ball is over and all gthat is left is the legitimate contenders for the WCHL Cup. The top three teams overall are still alive, as is the Colorado Avalanche, who won two straight titles prior to last season.

To put it in perspective of how little of a surprise it is to see the Pittsburgh Penguins, Colorado Avalanche, Calgary Flames and New York Rangers, check out their combined record this season. Those four teams went a collective 230-74-24 in the regular season, translating to a winning percentage of .738. A better example is this quartet has won the past five WCHL Cup's, each winning one and Colorado taking two. Calgary and New York Rangers have also reached the WCHL finals at least once more and lost.

So yeah, not a big shock.

But that also means we are in for some great series with a great plotline.

Here are my predictions for the WCHL conference finals.

Western Conference

(1)   Calgary Flames vs. (4) Colorado Avalanche- For the third straight season, the Flames and Avalanche will battle in the playoffs. Colorado bested the Flames two years ago in the conference finals, rallying from a two game to none deficit to advance on and win their second straight WCHL Cup. The following year the Flames raced out to a two games to none lead again, only this time they went on to finish the job, eliminating the Avalanche in four games. The Flames went on to the WCHL finals, losing to the New York Rangers. So for the third straight year as well, the winner of this series will go on to represent the Western Conference in the WCHL finals.

For Colorado, the key is going to be getting some level of consistency. Colorado once again had an erratic regular season, starting slowly before coming on strong down the stretch. In the playoffs, Colorado has lost the opening game to San Jose and Edmonton before rallying to win, including a historic comeback from a three to nothing deficit against Edmonton in round two. Getting a consistent flow to their results will be mandatory in this series.

Three straight years meeting in the playoffs will guarantee some tension in this series.

And that's because the Flames are unlike any other Western Conference team. No team is deeper than the Flames, and that depth has bred results in spades. Cruising to their second straight Western Conference title, the Flames have shown model consistency in their game, and that carried over to the playoffs, where they have gone 8-2 so far in two fairly easy wins over typically tough playoff opponents.

Calgary and Colorado should be an epic series, but Calgary might just be a bit to deep, a bit better in net between Ilya Bryzgalov and Cam Ward, and have a little better top end talent in guys like Steven Stamkos. Calgary in six.

Eastern Conference

(1)   Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (3) New York Rangers- No offense to the Flames and Avalanche, but this series arguably should be the WCHL Cup battle.

The Penguins finished tops in the WCHL with 130 points, and New York finished third with 123 points. Their combined records, plus the fact the Rangers are trying to defend their title, really make this the series to watch.

Pittsburgh will continue to rely on their immense offensive talents to grab wins.  From Sidney Crosby and Patrick Marleau to Patrick Kane and Teemu Selanne, the Penguins have arguably the best sheer level of talent in the game today. An incredible 10 different players scored 20 goals this season for Pittsburgh, and the Penguins 4.28 goals per game average dwarfed all other teams, even the Rangers, who were second with a 3.68 goals per game average.

It could just come down to who is better, Lundqvist or Crosby.

New York though can counter with the league's best goals against average, with their 2.28 average slightly better than Pittsburgh, who was second with a 2.37 goals against per game. The Rangers win games by wearing teams out, and allowing Henrik Lundqvist, who is arguably the games best netminder, to steal the odd big save when needed. There's nothing magical about what the Rangers do, they just win, and win a lot.

This series could come down to whether 80's style run and gun is better than the modern day grind it out style. Pittsburgh's got the guns, but the Rangers have the muscle. After waiting for this match up for  long time, it's going to come down to the final game to decide, and considering two Hart Trophy finalists in Crosby and Lundqvist are in this series, whichever one plays better could be the deciding factor. Pittsburgh in seven.

ACHL

Western Conference

(1)   Norfolk Admirals vs. (2) Peoria Rivermen – Norfolk in six.

Eastern Conference

(1) St. John's Icecaps vs. (3) Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins – Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in six.