The Kansas City Mavericks will take on the Idaho Steelheads in the Mountain Division Finals of the 2024 ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs.

In the opening round of the playoffs, Kansas City swept the Tulsa Oilers 4-0, and Idaho cruised past the Allen Americans 4-1.

The only other division that has determined its finalists is the Central Division, which will see the Toledo Walleye meet the Wheeling Nailers. Semifinal competition in the North and South Divisions could conclude as soon as Wednesday night.

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Mountain Division Finals

No. 1 Kansas City Mavericks (54-12-6) Vs. No. 2 Idaho Steelheads (48-20-4)

Game 1 - Saturday, May 4 at 7:05 p.m. CT at Kansas City
Game 2 - Sunday, May 5 at 4:05 p.m. CT at Kansas City
Game 3 - Wednesday, May 8 at 7:10 p.m. MT at Idaho
Game 4 - Friday, May 10 at 7:10 p.m. MT at Idaho
Game 5 – Saturday, May 11 at 3:10 p.m. MT at Idaho (If Necessary)
Game 6 – Tuesday, May 14 at 7:05 p.m. CT at Kansas City (If Necessary)
Game 7 – Wednesday, May 15 at 7:05 p.m. CT at Kansas City (If Necessary)

Kansas City And Idaho Top Scorers

Kansas City’s Patrick Curry had 39 goals (second in the ECHL) and 87 points (second in the ECHL) during the regular season, then he had three goals and five points against Tulsa; Idaho’s A.J. White had 27 goals and 66 points, while teammate Wade Murphy had 25 goals and 66 points, during the regular season. In the playoffs, Ty Pelton-Byce had three goals and 12 points against Allen.

What You Need To Know About The Kansas City Mavericks

The ECHL’s best team from start to finish during the regular season, Kansas City started off its playoff run by dismantling the Oilers. Granted, Tulsa squandered leads on the road in Games 1 and 2, and at home in Game 4, but that’s the thing about the Mavericks – they’re deep, relentless and come at you in waves.

And the Mavericks are getting outstanding goaltending. 

Cale Morris stopped 95.3% of the shots he faced in the first round, defeating Tulsa 4-2 in Game 1 and 3-1 in Game 3. Jack LaFontaine stopped 95.9% of the shots he faced in a 4-2 victory in Game 2 and a 2-1 victory in Game 4.

In case you didn’t notice, the first-round games were relatively low scoring, tight-checking games, and that suits the Mavericks just fine; they had the No. 1-ranked offense (4.24 goals per game) and No. 3-ranked defense (2.81 goals against per game) during the regular season.

Against the Steelheads, though, keeping shot totals and goal totals down is going to be much more of a challenge. 

During the six regular-season meetings between the teams, Idaho scored five goals three times, though the Mavericks emerged with a 4-1-1 record in the series. They haven’t faced the Steelheads since Jan. 13, though, and the complexion of their division rival is different now.

What You Need To Know About The Idaho Steelheads

Idaho is one of the few teams in the ECHL that can match Kansas City’s offense production; the Steelheads ranked second during the regular season with 4.21 goals per game. 

Defensively, things are murkier for the Steelheads, who ranked 17th with 3.36 goals against per game, sometimes getting sucked into playing a more free-wheeling style of game. 

Games 1 and 3 of their first-round series – a 6-5 overtime victory, capped by a Mark Rassell goal, and a 5-1 loss – are the proof.

Rassell has been a revelation this season for the Steelheads, so much so that we should be including him with Toledo’s Brandon Hawkins in the conversation for best pure goal scorer. In 48 games, including the playoffs, Rassell has 37 goals for the Steelheads.

Speaking of scoring, Pelton-Byce has been one of the ECHL’s best players over the last two regular seasons, totaling 36 goals and 106 points in 100 games, but he takes his play to another level in the postseason, and that was seen against the Americans. Pelton-Byce now has 12 goals and 29 points in 25 postseason contests.

Like the Mavericks, the Steelheads have used two goaltenders in the playoffs; Jake Kielly, who started Games 1-3, has stopped 88.9% of the shots he’s faced in the postseason, including a 28-save shutout in the 5-0 Game 2 victory, while Bryan Thomson, who’s probably going to scare the Mavericks a little more than his counterpart, stopped 93.3% of the shots he faced.

A year after rewriting the ECHL’s regular-season record books, only to get swept by the Florida Everblades in the Kelly Cup Finals, the Steelheads enter a series as an underdog for the first time in a long while. That should be decent motivation for a team that has been driven to learn from the mistakes it made a season ago.

Two Players To Watch In The Kansas City-Idaho Series

Kansas City’s Max Andreev, a forward, still has one more game to serve from his five-game suspension for leaving the bench to fight in the regular-season finale against the Utah Grizzlies. Once he reenters the lineup, what a boost it’ll be. 

Andreev was one of the ECHL’s most productive rookies with 19 goals and 73 points in just 63 regular-season games, using terrific vision and speed to make it happen, and his presence should open things up even more for Curry, Cade Borchardt and Jeremy McKenna.

Idaho’s Dawson Barteaux, a defenseman, is a similarly big addition. He was assigned by the AHL’s Manitoba Moose on Tuesday. 

Barteaux impacts games at both ends of the ice; he had three goals, 13 points and a plus-19 rating in just 15 regular-season games. 

The Steelheads create a ton of offense from the back end with the likes of Patrick Kudla and Matt Register – a clear advantage over the Mavericks – and Barteaux’s presence will amplify that.

X-Factor For Kansas City-Idaho Series

Idaho’s power play.

Kansas City, typically, does a great job of staying out of the penalty box. During the regular season, the Mavericks averaged only 9.56 penalty minutes, second-fewest in the league behind only the Jacksonville Icemen’s 8.82 minute per game. For what it’s worth, Idaho averaged 11.53 minutes, eighth-fewest in the league.

Against the Steelheads, though, the Mavericks lost their cool at times during the six regular-season meetings. That set up Idaho to score on 7 of 15 power-play opportunities, while Kansas City was 4 of 16. That’s 46.7% to 25% – both good percentages but proof the Mavericks don’t want to let the Steelheads get opportunities for the man-advantage.

Look for the Steelheads to be more willing to push the boundaries of physical play in this series, with the hope they can generate special-teams chances. It sounds scary, because the Mavericks have so much talent for special teams themselves, but that was the one facet of Kansas City’s regular season that was underwhelming, as they ranked eighth on the power play during the regular season at 21.3% (Idaho was first at 28.5%) and 13th on the penalty kill at 79.3% (Idaho was 14th at 79.2%).

Kansas City Mavericks Vs. Idaho Steelheads Prediction

One could absolutely argue these are the best teams in the ECHL. 

Kansas City had the best record in the regular season and impressed in the opening round of the playoffs. 

Idaho had the third-best record in the regular season and also impressed in the opening round. 

And it adds a layer of intrigue that these two division rivals haven’t met in so long.

Kansas City has won 13 of its last 14 games. Idaho has won nine of its last 10.

Both are stacked at forward. Kansas City has an edge in goaltending. Idaho has an edge in special teams. The defensive corps both are behemoths, but in different ways – Kansas City will punish opponents in the defensive zone, while Idaho will try to push things from defense to offense quickly.

This is as close on paper as two teams can get, but Idaho has a habit of getting away from its systems to play more of an open game, while Kansas City stays within its structure, seemingly at all times, and that will be the difference in this one, especially in a 2-3-2 formatted series that starts in Kansas City.

Kansas City wins in seven games. 

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