In return to WHL playoffs, Spokane Chiefs need Berkly Catton and Conner Roulette at their best

When asked if there was anything he did better on a hockey rink than his teammate Berkly Catton does, Conner Roulette quickly upended the question.

“What does he not do better than anyone on the ice?” Roulette said this week as the Chiefs prepare for the Western Hockey League playoffs. “I think what he does better than me on the ice (is) he just sees the game a lot better.”

Both Catton and Roulette finished the 68-game regular season with more than 100 points, so there’s an element of modesty to what the 20-year-old Roulette said about his 18-year-old teammate.

Roulette is already an NHL draft pick, chosen 111th overall by the Dallas Stars in 2021. Catton projects as a top-10 pick in June.

But one thing is certain: The Spokane Chiefs are going to need the best out of both this week as they prepare for a best-of-seven, first-round WHL playoff series that starts on the road Friday against the top-seeded Prince George Cougars.

“The chemistry they have is unique, and you see it in sport and it’s special when it’s happening, and for these two it’s been a real special year,” Spokane coach Ryan Smith said. “We’re going to need them going into the playoffs to continue that chemistry.”

The eighth-seeded Chiefs are back in the Western Conference playoffs after missing them last season. The appearance comes after Spokane went 30-32-5-1 to earn 66 points, their most since finishing a truncated 2019-20 season with 87 points in 64 games.

Prince George (49-15-1-3) finished the regular season with 102 points, one more than second-place Portland in the Western Conference standings. The Cougars haven’t lost in regulation since Feb. 2, a point streak of 19 games.

But in four matchups this year, the Chiefs beat the Cougars twice – once in regulation and once in overtime – as recently as March 1, a 5-4 overtime victory. The teams will play in Prince George on Friday and Saturday before playing the middle three games – if all three are necessary – on Tuesday, Wednesday and April 5 at the Arena.

“For us, it’s Spokane versus Prince George and nobody’s got any more wins than anybody else when the series starts on Friday,” Smith said. “They get the first couple games at home, but besides that, we don’t talk about the seedings.”

In their second full season under Smith – who took over as interim head coach in February 2022 before he was named to the job full time four months later – the Chiefs scored 268 goals this year, on goal a game more than they did last season. That total ranked seventh in the 22-team WHL this season.

The Chiefs trimmed 31 goals from what they allowed in 2022-23, but their 283 goals against were still the fifth most in the league this season. That suggests this series will be a high-scoring one: Only Portland (330 goals) scored more than Prince George did (316).

Ten WHL players crossed the 100-point threshold this season, and five of them will play in this series. The Cougars have three, led by winger Zac Funk, the league’s top goal-scorer with 67, who added 56 assists for 123 points.

They also have center Riley Heidt (117 points on 37 goals and 80 assists) and right wing Terik Parascak (105 on 43 and 62). Another winger, Ondrej Becher, had 96 points despite playing just 58 games.

It’s a lot of offensive firepower, and the Chiefs will look to match it as best they can.

A big part of that will be the play of Roulette and Catton, who give the Chiefs their first pair of 100-point players in the same season since 1993-1994.

After finishing with 55 points last season, Catton more than doubled that total to 116 this year on 54 goals and 62 assists. He’s the franchise’s first 50-goal scorer since Mitch Holmberg had 62 in 2013-14.

Roulette wasn’t far behind. He scored 45 goals this year and added 63 assists for 108 points after finishing with 63 points for the Saskatoon Blades last year.

One of the reasons the Chiefs acquired Roulette before the season was because of his playoff experience. He went to the Eastern Conference final last year and the year before that played in the WHL Final with the Seattle Thunderbirds.

“Being able to be a part of teams that made some deep runs in the playoffs, I think coming to this team there’s a lot of young guys that don’t quite have that experience,” Roulette said. “So I think for me, just being able to make sure everyone’s ready for the adversity that the playoffs bring.

“And, you know, it’s a long series. Each game feels like it’s a longer game than usual, so just making sure everyone stays composed and has that mental strength to keep grinding through the series.”

As the Chiefs pushed for a playoff spot, Catton and Roulette helped carry them.

Over the past 10 games, Catton scored 11 goals and assisted on 11, and Roulette scored seven and had 15 assists.

“I think we both kind of play free, I guess,” Catton said. “I feel like when we have the puck offensively, we’re just always trying to make plays. And if you try and make plays a certain amount of times, eventually it’s going to work.”

Much of that, Roulette said, comes from their abilities to find open space when they don’t have the puck.

“(Catton is) such a good playmaker and he can find me when I get open,” Roulette said. “So I think what really helped us is when I have the puck, I know that he’s going to be open and he’s going to find spots and areas to get open. And when he has the puck, I try to do my best to do the same thing.”

Two years ago, the Chiefs came into the playoffs seeded seventh and were swept in dominant fashion: Kamloops outscored them 20-6.

Catton said, however, that even since the start of this season the Chiefs have improved across the board.

And at the least, the Chiefs have shown this year they have the offensive firepower to stay in games.

“I think (we’ve improved in) every area, honestly,” Catton said. “We’ve gelled together. We’re playing as a team a lot more, and our systems have gotten a lot stronger.”