To the rest of the Western Hockey League, they are the Evil Empire. Or worse.

And they love it. Feeding off an “Us Against the World’’ mentality since the league attempted to slap them down with the harshest penalties in its history, the Portland Winterhawks were the WHL’s best team in the regular season.

They were a juggernaut.

Of course, that is so yesterday’s news. The playoffs are a different animal.

“Just because you had a good regular season doesn’t mean you you’re going to have a good playoff,’’ said acting Hawks coach Travis Green after Portland (57-12-1-2) wrapped up the pre-playoff portion of its schedule Sunday with a 6-1 win over the Spokane Chiefs at the Rose Garden.

“Over the course of 72 games we set ourselves up to be in a good spot, but you (still) have to play well,’’ said Green. “The other team’s going to raise the bar. We’re going to raise the bar, too. If we’re playing our best hockey, I like our chances.’’

Portland meets Everett in Game 1 of a best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal series on Friday at the Rose Garden. The Hawks pounded the Silvertips 9-1 in the two teams’ season series, outscoring them 50-22.

The party line is that Everett can cause trouble. The reality is, it would be one of the biggest playoff upsets in major-junior history, considering Portland is expected to reach the WHL Finals for a third straight year.

“We’ve got to be ready (for an ambush),’’ insisted Portland captain Troy Rutkowski. “Whoever we play, we’ve got to be ready, just as much as if we were playing Edmonton, or Kelowna.’’

On Sunday, in a meaningless game, Green rested star forwards Brendan Leipsic and Nic Petan – meaning they finished the regular season tied for the WHL scoring lead at 120 points apiece.

That hasn’t happened in 25 years, since Joe Sakic (Swift Current) and Theo Fleury (Moose Jaw) had 160 points apiece in 1987-88.

“It’s cool, just kind of fitting it ended up like this,’’ said Leipsic. “I wouldn’t want to share the title with anybody else.’’

Said Petan, “No better way to go out with it. We talked about tying and how it would be really great and it happened. So it’s pretty cool.’’

Portland finished with the WHL's top three scorers, because Ty Rattie (who played Sunday) finished with 110 points. It wasn't unprecedented - Brian Propp, Ray Allison, and Laurie Boschman went 1-2-3 in 1978-79 for the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Meanwhile, Hawks’ starting goaltender Mac Carruth took another day off.

Carruth hasn’t played since suffering a slight muscle pull (“lower body injury’’) Tuesday night in Victoria but there’s no indication he won’t be ready for Game 1 against Everett.

On the other hand, Hawks’ backup Brendan Burke was 7-0 vs. the Silvertips with a 1.86 goals against average. “We’ll make those decisions later in the week,’’ said Green of his choice of goalkeeper for Everett. “Right now, we’ll just see how Mac is on Tuesday (when practice resumes).’’

Portland management thought this 2012-13 team might be a year away from being really, really good. But the Hawks were terrific THIS season, setting franchise records for wins (57) and points (117). They won the Scotty Munro Trophy that goes to the team with the WHL’s record record for only the second time (first time, 1997-98 when they won the Memorial Cup). Portland also led the WHL in goals for and goals-against and set a franchise record for fewest goals allowed.

As to this "Evil Empire'' thing - Seattle intro'd the Hawks Saturday night to the famous Star Wars theme - it has become a source of pride. Team president Doug Piper said, "I love it. If I had my way, we'd wear black throughout the playoffs.''

Of course, that might draw a hefty fine from the WHL and the loss of more draft picks. At this point, the Hawks wouldn't care, I'm guessing.

Notes:

Leipsic and Petan were named team co-MVPs, Taylor Peters won the defense award, Troy Rutkowski the sportsmanship award, Rutkowski and Dominic Turgeon shared the scholastic award, Peters won Booster Club Fan favorite and Petan and Leipsic shared the leading scorer award. ... Everett doesn't sound like a doomed team going into the Portland series, but there's no question the Silvertips would have preferred playing No. 2 seed Kelowna in Round 1. "The guys are a little down. ... it's frustrating,'' Tips' alternate captain Manraj Hayer told the Everett Herald. "But we're the eighth seed now and we've got Portand coming up so we have to be ready for them. It's going to be a battle, that's for sure. They're a very good team and we have to give them respect for what they've done this year. But we're going to play them hard and see what happens.'' ... Portland had the WHL's top three scorers, which is unusual but not unprecedented. In 1978-79, Brandon's Brian Propp (94 goals, 194 points), Ray Allison (153 points) and center Laurie Boschman (149 points) were 1-2-3 in league scoring. ... when the WHL scoring race ended in a tie in 1987-88, Sakic was declared scoring champ based on more goals, 78-68.

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Paul Buker