With the CHL regular season finishing last weekend, the playoffs for all three leagues will be starting later this week. Here are the important dates for those who want to follow along, and some how-to tips to watch along.
Ty Voit
After finishing with 105 points, Ty Voit and the Sarnia Sting are the third seed in their conference. They loaded up for a playoff run, acquiring Sasha Pastujov, Luca Del Bel Belluz, and Christian Kyrou who were all top players in the OHL this year. This was added to Voit and Nolan Burke, who had 50 goals this year.
They will be taking on the Guelph Storm starting on Friday, March 31st. In fact, here is the schedule for their 7 game series:
- Friday, March 31st — 7:05 pm EST in Sarnia
- Sunday, April 2nd — 2:05 pm EST in Sarnia
- Tuesday, April 4th — 7:00 pm EST in Guelph
- Thursday, April 6th — 7:00 pm EST in Guelph
- Friday, April 7th — 7:05 pm EST in Sarnia*
- Sunday, April 9th — 2:00 pm EST in Guelph*
- Tuesday, April 11th — 7:05 pm EST in Sarnia*
* = if necessary
Braeden Kressler
Kressler had a bit of a breakout season, where he finally had a long stretch of good health. Unfortunately he missed a lot of chunks of games down the stretch yet again, and his production slowed. Flint did the opposite of Sarnia, where they actually sold some of their top players instead of trying to load up. That did leave Kressler with a higher spot in the lineup, when healthy. They'll be the slight underdog as the 5th seed against Saginaw.
- Thursday, March 31st — 7:05 pm EST in Saginaw
- Friday, April 2nd — 7:05 pm EST in Saginaw
- Monday, April 3rd — 7:05 pm EST in Flint
- Wednesday, April 5th — 7:05 pm EST in Flint
- Friday, April 7th — 7:05 pm EST in Saginaw*
- Saturday, April 8th — 7:05 pm EST in Flint*
- Monday, April 10th — 7:05 pm EST in Saginaw*
* = if necessary
Fraser Minten
Fraser Minten and the Kamloops Blazers loaded up for a huge playoff run, since they will be the hosts of the Memorial Cup series. That means they have a guaranteed spot in the tournament. The backdraw for we Leafs fans is that Minten was pushed down the depth chart, down to the second line and second powerplay unit. Like Sarnia, Kamloops also finished as the third seed in their WHL conference. They will be taking on the Vancouver Giants, also starting on Friday.
- Friday, March 31st — 10:00 pm EST in Kamloops
- Saturday, April 1st — 10:00 pm EST in Kamloops
- Tuesday, April 4th — 10:00 pm EST in Vancouver
- Thursday, April 6th — 10:30 pm EST in Vancouver
- Saturday, April 8th — 10:00 pm EST in Kamloops*
- Monday, April 10th — 10:00 pm EST in Vancouver*
- Wednesday, April 12th — 10:00 pm EST in Kamloops*
* = if necessary
Brandon Lisowsky and Josh Pillar
Lisowsky and Pillar are both on the Saskatoon Blades. They finished – stop me if you've heard this before – as the third seed in their conference. Only Kressler and Flint ruined the streak for Toronto's prospects.
Despite being another third seed, Saskatoon did not really load up at the deadline. They were already a pretty strong team but don't really have a lot of star power. More of a deep lineup. This series will be very fun though, as they take on uber prospect Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats – their provincial rival.
- Friday, March 31st — 9:00 pm EST in Saskatoon
- Sunday, April 2nd — 6:00 pm EST in Saskatoon
- Tuesday, April 4th — 9:00 pm EST in Regina
- Wednesday, April 5th — 9:00 pm EST in Regina
- Friday, April 7th — TBD in Saskatoon*
- Saturday, April 8th — 9:00 pm EST in Regina*
- Monday, April 11th — 9:00 pm EST in Saskatoon*
* = if necessary
How to Watch
If you want to watch any of these playoff series, the best way to do it is to sign up for the CHL watch app. They have a number of packages that vary in price and amount of access to games:
- CHL Playoff All Access – $89.99 + taxes for all teams, all playoff games, in all three leagues through the Memorial Cup
- WHL/OHL Playoff Pass – $59.99 + taxes for all teams in ONLY the WHL or the OHL (whichever you choose).
- WHL/OHL Round 1 Playoff Pass – $19.99 for all teams in ONLY the WHL or OHL, and only for the first round of the playoffs.
- WHL/OHL Daily Playoff Pass – $9.99 for all teams in ONLY the WHL or OHL, only for the specific day on which you buy the package.
For those who still have cable or already pay for TSN's online streaming service, TSN will also carrying some of the CHL playoff games. But they have yet to list the games/times, as they will likely pick and choose from the best matchups depending on the time slot they have available.
You can check back here on Thursday to see if they've added any games: https://www.tsn.ca/chl-on-tsn-broadcast-schedule-1.1712768
