Everett, Wash.
Published: Monday, March 17, 2008

Silvertips rest slew of players in 5-2 loss to T-birds

A number of key guys, including Zach Hamill and Kyle Beach, are on the scratch list as Everett drops its season finale to Seattle on Sunday night.

By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer

 SEATTLE -- The Everett Silvertips are limping into the postseason.

But for at least one night, it was as much by design as it was a result of getting beat.

Fielding a bare-bones lineup, Everett concluded the regular season by losing 5-2 to the Seattle Thunderbirds on Sunday at KeyArena. It was the Tips' fifth-straight loss to end the season.

In a game that meant nothing to either team, Everett had a potential future NHL lineup on its scratch list -- forwards Zach Hamill, Dan Gendur and Kyle Beach, defensemen Dane Crowley, Taylor Ellington and Jonathan Harty, goaltender Leland Irving -- as the Tips rested players in preparation for the playoffs.

Everett also gave a Western Hockey League debut to 15-year-old goaltender Kent Simpson. The Tips' first-round pick in the 2007 bantam draft played the entire second half of the game.

So victory was far from the main priority for the Tips on Sunday.

"Most teams rest their top guys," Everett coach John Becanic said about his lineup strategy for the final game. "You don't take that risk going into the playoffs."

Nevertheless, Everett played right with the T-birds. If not for some sensational goaltending by Seattle's Jacob DeSerres the Tips would have been right in it.

But the Tips fell behind 3-0 in the first period thanks to goals by Bud Holloway, David Richard and Jim O'Brien and were never able to threaten the lead.

"Sadly, I thought it was one of our better performances," Becanic said with an ironic laugh.

"I thought a lot of guys played hard, considering it was our fourth game in five nights. I'm pretty positive about our performance."

Jan Eberle and Prab Rai also scored and DeSerres made 36 saves in goal for Seattle, which finished 42-23-5-2.

"It was good that we came out and played hard," O'Brien said. "It's kind of hard to get up for a game where the standings are already set. But we wanted to come in here and play the right way."

Zack Dailey scored both goals for Everett (39-30-0-3) to continue his good run of goal scoring. The diminutive center, known more for his checking abilities, has scored five of his nine goals in the past two weeks.

"It's been really nice," Dailey said about his output increase. "I don't really feel like I've been doing anything different. But the puck's been coming to me and I'm enjoying it."

Shayne Barrie, who started the night in goal for the Tips, stopped 10 of the 14 shots he faced. Simpson, who took over midway through the second period, looked a little nervous but still managed to turn away 19 of the 20 shots he saw.

Becanic said he was not worried about going into the playoffs riding a five-game losing streak.

"I'm not concerned because we played hard Friday night (in a 3-1 loss to Seattle)," Becanic said. "Saturday (a 5-1 loss at Chilliwack), unfortunately, is exactly what I expected. Our guys were so emotionally drained and down that by the time we woke up in Chilliwack we were down 3-0, and then we started resting guys. You don't want to lose five games going into the playoffs, but our focus is really going to be the one game we're playing."

Everett, despite its depleted lineup, actually played pretty well in the first period, outshooting the T-birds 18-9. Unfortunately for the Tips Seattle scored on all its chances and DeSerres made several great saves. Holloway scored short-handed by putting in his own rebound to open the scoring at 10:18; Richard scored on the power play at 12:35 on a nice feed from Rai; and O'Brien forced a turnover and fired a shot past Barrie at 18:57 to snatch a 3-0 lead.

Everett got on the board with 32.8 seconds remaining in the period. DeSerres made another fantastic save to stop Matt Ius on a rebound, but Dailey was able to put the second rebound over a downed DeSerres to make it 3-1.

Seattle made it 4-1 at 7:59 of the second when Eberle scored after a mad scramble. But Dailey scored his second of the game at 15:16, converting a backdoor feed from Shane Harper just as a power play expired.

Rai finished off the scoring at 10:05 of the third, getting a shot under Simpson from 30 feet out.

Thunderbirds 5, Silvertips 2

Everett 1 1 0 -- 2

Seattle 3 1 1 -- 5

@5. NHL box :First Period--1, Seattle, Holloway 43, 10:18 (sh). 2, Seattle, Richard 22 (Rai, McKenzie), 18:57 (pp). 3, Seattle, O'Brien 21, 18:57. 4, Everett, Dailey 8 (Ius, Vartovnik), 19:27. Penalties--English, Everett (slashing-fighting), 2:24; Dillon, Seattle (fighting), 2:24; Eberle, Seattle (hooking), 6:07; Olson, Seattle (slashing), 9:36; Kieffer, Everett (hooking), 10:36; Jackson, Seattle (interference), 17:01; Karamnov, Everett (interference), 17:05.

Second Period--5, Seattle, Eberle 7 (McKenzie, Boyer), 7:59. 6, Everett, Dailey 9 (Harper, de la Lande), 15:16. Penalties--Alexander, Everett (holding), 1:04; Mistelbacher, Everett (diving), 3:49; Jackson, Seattle (interference), 3:49; McKenzie, Seattle (tripping), 5:45; Potuer, Everett (checking from behind), 9:46; Dailey, Everett (tripping), 12:38; O'Brien, Seattle (slashing), 13:14; Skauge, Everett (roughing), 13:54; Olson, Seattle (roughing), 13:54; O'Brien, Seattle (hooking), 15:49; Burt, Everett (checking from behind), 17:58; Acolatse, Seattle (roughing), 17:58; Karamnov, Everett (diving), 19:34; Haber, Seattle (hooking), 19:34.

Third Period--7, Seattle, Rai 20 (O'Brien, Richard), 10:05. Penalties--Burt, Everett (tripping), 0:40; McKenzie, Seattle (elbowing), 11:34; Ius, Everett (hooking), 16:04.

Shots on goal--Everett 18-14-6--38. Seattle 9-10-15--34. Power-play opportunities--Everett 0 of 7. Seattle 1 of 8.

Goalies--Everett, Barrie 12-6-0-0 (14 shots, 10 saves), Simpson (20 shots, 19 saves). Seattle, DeSerres 20-11-0-1 (38 shots, 36 saves).

A--4,405.

Nick Patterson's Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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